What if?
by Western-Otaku
Summary: [SERIOUSLY AU] What if Dumbledore wasn't so manipulative? What if Harry was never sent to the Dursleys? What if Harry had loving carers instead? What if Harry actually received training? What if... things were VERY different? Fem!Harry/Girl!Harry, Creature!Harry, Trained!Harry, Fem-Slash, Eventual Main Pairing: HP/DG more may be added later, Rated M for Language and just in case.
1. Things are different

**AN: -PLEASE READ THIS-**

 _Friendly note No.1: Don't expect anything original from me.  
_

 _Friendly note No.2: I think it would be accurate to rate the quality of my writing as... average... or mediocre? In other words, my writing style may or may not be to your liking, that's for you to judge if you read this. Usually I tend not to mess with many different viewpoints, I may add the odd character in occasionally so you guys know what's going on but I usually like to stick with the main character. Criticism and pointers on how I can improve are appreciated, but I ask that you keep them friendly please, I really don't like reading harsh comments or flames._

 _Friendly note No.3: This story contains OCs. Most of them will be family members because I need to fill a few gaps in the families because more adults survived the first war this time around which means more kids... I plan to use characters that already exist for Harry's friendship group._

 _Friendly note No.4: A warning that some characters may appear OOC, but hey... I'm not J.K Rowling..._

 _Friendly note No.5: This story contains a female Harry, a Harry who has a magical creature inheritance and fem-slash between Harry and another girl... there may be more girl on girl action later too, but that's all I can say for now._

 _Friendly note No.6: Canon has been screwed with quite badly here... some of it may be to your liking, other parts may not be to your liking at all. I'm afraid you'll need to read on to find out what has changed, but this is a friendly heads-up. In an attempt to get some explanations out of the way, there are 2 major info dumps marked out in this chapter that you can read to your discretion. The first one can be skipped, but I suggest you read the second one._

 _Final friendly note No.7: Dates have been slightly modernised so that I don't need to spend as much time looking into things like 'What was the fashion like for 11 year olds back in the early 90s?', 'What model car would Harry's family have at that time?', 'Was this TV show airing at that time?'... of course some things may still slip through the cracks but because there is less of a time difference I can only hope they're not so glaringly obvious...  
_

 **TL;DR: THERE IS A CHANCE THAT YOU MAY FIND THIS A PILE OF SHIT.**

 _Now that_ _ **THAT**_ _is out of the way…_

 **Disclaimer: Not sure if this is actually required but better safe than sorry. Anything you recognise here, I DO NOT OWN IT.**

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October 31st 1998 - Godric's Hollow  


All was peaceful in the quiet town of Godric's Hollow. Merely hours ago, a bystander would have saw the final traces of kids returning home from a productive night of Trick-or-Treating.

As Children gleefully tore into their hard-earned spoils of the night, a lone robed figure proceeded down a road towards a House at the end of the street.

You may think that this House was no different from all the other Houses in the same town, but think again. This particular House was invisible to normal eyes; in fact, to the common person this House doesn't even exist. An interesting thought to try to wrap your head around.

How can something that exists… _not_ exist? How can that be possible?

There is always a simple answer to every question… well, in _most_ cases there is a simple answer… these cases do not include things like Mathematics or how the opposite gender's mind works… but we're getting off-track here.

The answer to our earlier question is simple.

Magic.

No, I'm not being sarcastic here.

* * *

 **[INCOMING INFO DUMP - SKIPPABLE]**

Magic is not something made-up that Parents use as a quick answer to naïve questions from Children when they don't want to spend their time explaining things, Magic is not when a clever person comes up with a sleight of hand trick to fool your eyes, Magic is not even when you leave the House with your room in a big mess and then return to find it clean again… no, that is actually your Mum and you should really be more appreciative of her and all that she does for you!

No, Magic is something else entirely.

Magic is the sentient energy that flows through the Universe, connecting everything that exists together – Living and Inanimate. Magic, is the very essence of life that is present in anything and everything. Magic is life and death. Magic is what makes the galaxy spin. Magic is what makes the Universe go round. Magic is a force that cannot be owned nor rejected. Magic is the closest thing we have to an Omnipotent being. Magic is why you and I exist.

Do you understand what that means?

No?

Well neither does anyone else around here. Don't you worry about it. Let's just say that Magic exists… and there is a small population out there somewhere in the world that is very close to Magic. They have the ability to feel Magic around them, and they also have the ability to manipulate it and show some semblance of control in it.

They come in many forms, such as creatures but just for now we are going to focus on those that most resemble us. Most of those, which we are referring to, call themselves Witches and Wizards.

It was thanks to an old and powerful Wizard that we were even able to discuss about a Magical House at all, because he was the one who cast such a powerful spell.

The House in question is also currently the Home of a small magical family. You see, there is a reason why they live in such a House under such a powerful spell.

They are currently living in the middle of a War.

This War is a magical War between manipulators of Magic that have opposing views to each other.

Due to the fact that Magic is something that many people do not fully understand, which includes those that can manipulate it, there are many views and opinions on how it should be used and who should be able to use it.

There are those that believe that Magic belongs to the families of those that have been able to manipulate it since long ago before History began… or was recorded at least. These people believe that Magic is their birth right and that no one else should be allowed 'ownership' of Magic. To further understand their viewpoint, you need knowledge on Wizarding Culture.

In Wizarding Culture, there are 3… 'classes' of Witches and Wizards. The 'upper class' are known as 'Purebloods' in reference to the fact that they are from Wizarding families that have been known to have the ability to manipulate Magic for a long time. Both their Parents should also be Purebloods, from Pureblood families, so their blood must be purely Magical... at least that is what they believe in their arrogance... If there was a royalty or upper class in the Wizarding World, that spot would be taken by Purebloods.

Next, you have the 'middle class', the 'Halfbloods'. They are called this because they usually have a Parent who is a Pureblood and another Parent who is either a 'Muggle' (which is the Wizarding term for someone who does not have the ability to manipulate Magic) or a Parent who is a member of the 'lower class' of the Wizarding World, which we'll explain in a minute. Halfbloods do not have the same status that Purebloods do in the Wizarding World, and this also means that they do not receive the same benefits that being a Pureblood does in Wizarding Culture, but thankfully the Halfbloods receive little attention because most of the ire of Purebloods is focused on the 'lower class'.

And finally, you have what's considered as the 'lower class' in the Wizarding World, the 'Muggleborns'. These are people who are new or fairly new to the Wizarding World. They usually have recent family members who are Muggles such as Great Grandparents, Grandparents or just Parents. Muggleborns are the ones who are usually shown discrimination in the Wizarding World and even have their own derogatory name: "Mudbloods" as Purebloods believe that due to being closely associated with Muggles, their blood must not be as valuable as their own, so the value of a Mudblood's blood is akin to the value of mud.

But the treatment that Muggleborns go through is nothing compared to the treatment of Sentient Magical Creatures and offspring between a Magical Creature and a Witch or Wizard, which are known as Half-breeds. Since most of the Magical World is under control of the Witches and Wizards, they feel that they are clearly superior to any other form of life, even those that are more skilled at manipulating Magic than them. This leads to the Witches and Wizards putting in place many laws and rules etc. that give Magical Creatures and Half-breeds less rights than them and generally causes them much grief in their lives. As a result, most Magical Creatures shun the Humans and leave the Wizarding World to go live on their own as a Magical Race. Creatures that have done this include: Centaurs, Dragons (those that have not been captured or slain), Werewolves, Vampires, Merpeople, Dwarves, Elves etc. One exception being the Goblins who tried to take over the Wizarding World numerous times in Goblin rebellions. However all their attempts resulted in failure and now in modern times they have taken the role of managing the economy of the Wizarding World and storing their funds... but do you really believe that after many attempted rebellions, the Goblins would just sit down and be obedient? Food for thought...

But the worse place to be in society is to be known as a Half-breed. You have the same rights as a full Magical Creature - which is next to nothing - but you don't have the choice to leave the Wizarding World and join your Magical Race because they shun you too for your partial Human heritage, so they are stuck in the middle. Most Half-breeds keep a low profile and go to great lengths to conceal what they are in order to live some semblance of a normal life among the Witches and Wizards so it would be difficult to find a Half-breed.

Now back to the War, the side that believes Magic belongs to the Purebloods think that Magic was somehow stolen by the Muggles and thus the Muggleborns came to be. They believe that Muggleborns don't deserve Magic and should have it taken from them and then have them sent back to the Muggles, or made into servants or slaves to serve the 'clearly more important' Purebloods. They choose to ignore that it is highly likely that some time ago in the distant past their Wizarding family was started by a Muggleborn. And they also choose to remain ignorant of the fact that due to the limited number of old Wizarding families that are still alive, most of them are now related to each other in some way (even if it is a distant relation) and they are now inbreeding in order to continue the idea of keeping the blood of the family 'Pure'. This inbreeding may also be the reason why the magical strength of Purebloods has been slowly declining over time. Of course, it is also possible that most Purebloods are too arrogant nowadays to realise that they need to put more work and effort into becoming better at using Magic.

Then there is the other side in the War, who welcome the addition of Muggleborns into the Wizarding World or at least they have no issue with them. They fight to prevent the opposition from killing innocents and causing destruction in the Wizarding World.

The side that don't wish to tolerate Muggleborns are known as the Dark side, and the side that welcomes them are known as the Light side. Pretty convenient labelling, eh?

The Dark side is led by a Dark Lord who goes by the name of Lord Voldemort, and it is he who is striding down the road towards the hidden House tonight.

 **[END OF INFO DUMP]**

* * *

Voldemort stopped as he reached the front gate of the House he had been searching for. For the past few months he had been secretly committing all his energy and available resources into learning the location of this damned House.

Such a task would be Child's play for him, if it wasn't under the Fidelius Charm. While the spell was extremely useful in keeping secrets, and the Dark Lord had his own secrets that were hidden under the same charm, it was a right pain in the backside to overcome.

Just yesterday, he had been ready to give up on this farce and focus his attention back on the War effort. He realised that if it wasn't for this distraction, he would have likely taken control of Britain and be well on the road to taking control of Magical France by now. The opposition may outnumber him and his forces, but they lacked the same co-ordination that he and his Death-Eaters had. This allowed them the advantage as they organised attacks and executed them before the opposition were able to properly mount a counter-attack.

He was also gaining more and more support every day, whether it be due to people agreeing with his cause, or cowards switching to the clearly winning side, it did not matter.

At the moment, all Voldemort was concerned about was the knowledge that he'd finally be rid of this nuisance that has been plaguing him non-stop since he learned of the damn prophecy.

The aforementioned prophecy foretold of a Child being born that would be destined to defeat him, HIM! the most powerful Dark Lord the Wizarding World has ever known, surpassing even Grindelwald at his prime during the last Great Wizarding War, also known as World War II by the Muggles.

While Voldemort did not have all the details as he only knew part of the prophecy, he knew enough to figure out for himself that the Child would either be born to the Longbottoms or to the Potters. He had more of a suspicion that the Potter Child would be the one to fulfil the prophecy because the Potters were more involved in the War than the Longbottoms. Both fought fiercely in the War but up until recently the Potters could be found participating in every high-level operation the Light side launched, and whenever there was a battle between his Death-Eaters and the Light side forces, the Potters would be one of the first on the scene.

However, not one to believe in chances, Voldemort secretly tasked a select few high-rank members from his inner circle to go and deal with the Longbottoms while he personally dealt with the Potters. It would not do for his forces to find out about the prophecy and doubt their leader so utter discretion was enforced. Also, the less who knew about this whole affair, the better; soon it would all be done and forgotten in the grand scheme of things.

It was highly fortunate that a Death-Eater recruit happened to be the secret keeper to the Fidelius Charm that protected both the Longbottoms and the Potters or the Dark Lord would not have the chance to be standing just past the Ward line that protected the property the Potters resided in.

With a small sigh at the loss of another Most Ancient and Most Noble Wizarding House (Family), the Dark Lord opened the front gate to the House and stepped past the Ward line without any inclination of effort as he immediately tore through the Wards on the House with a thought.

Almost distractedly, he unsheathed his wand and sent a silent curse that blew the front door into millions of splinters of Wood.

Looking unimpressed by the House, he didn't pay attention as he unconsciously deflected 3 simultaneous curses and in retaliation, sent a curse of his own making at his attacker.

" _Carnibus vescentium_ "

A curse that he modified from the reanimation ritual that created Inferi. The ritual required a dead corpse for reanimation, whereas his curse needed to be used on live victims. However, his curse needed a minute or two to take effect and so it wasn't practical when there were multiple opposing combatants as the turning process could be interrupted.

Once Voldemort had his obedient Inferi slave, he ordered it to go and seek out the Lady Potter and kill her while he dealt with the Child. Inferi were the perfect grunts to be used in battles because they were fast, strong and totally obedient to their creators and were difficult to take down without the use of fire spells.

The Dark Lord took his time climbing the stairs as he heard Lady Potter sobbing and begging her husband to 'snap out of it' in the Nursery. The sobbing and begging soon turned into ear-piercing screams as he reached the top of the stairs.

With a grin of sadistic satisfaction, he walked into the Nursery to find the lifeless body of Lady Potter being very slowly devoured at the neck by Lord Potter.

"Such a waste… you were once a beautiful couple… but now you are at each other's throats… or at least one of you is." The Dark Lord chuckled to himself at his own dark sense of humour.

He idly set his Inferi slave on fire as he turned to examine the small Nursery. The room was painted in colours of Lime Green and Light Blue with a carpet the colour of White Caribbean Sand, and was filled with things that reminded him of the Sea, such as a small collection of sea shells lining the table that was standing against the far wall, and a mobile with the Sun, clouds and some Seagulls hanging over the cot that was in the centre of the room.

It was in the cot that he found what he was looking for.

Sitting quietly, staring at the bloody and burning remains of their dead parents, was the Potter Child. The Killing Curse was already glowing at the tip of the Dark Lord's wand when something about the Child caught his attention.

Voldemort had been expecting to see a raven haired boy with hazel brown eyes when he came to the House, but now he found himself staring at a girl that had blonde hair which turned dirty blonde at the roots, with vividly glowing Sea Green eyes. Instead of looking like a carbon copy of her Father, she looked like a carbon copy of her Mother.

This was interesting because from all the rumours, he had been under the thorough impression that the Potters had a baby boy instead of a girl… but what was the reason why these rumours were untrue? Was it because information was miscommunicated or was there a bigger reason?

Voldemort didn't spend long pondering this as he realised that it did not matter. Very soon the girl would be dead with her Parents and Voldemort could finally focus on taking over Britain, and he had spent too much time here already; he was sure that from the moment the Wards collapsed it wouldn't be very long before people arrived to offer assistance to the Potters.

" _Avada Kedavra_ "

And with that he turned away from the girl and began making his way out of the Nursery, already thinking of ways to take over the Ministry and wondering how the invasion in France was going. As he was pre-occupied, he did not notice that his Killing Curse hadn't reached the girl and was instead being held back by a shield. But the shield was not just any magical shield; it was a magical shield that was comprised of water.

In his confidence, the Dark Lord did not notice that around the cot was a small array of unusual Runes. They were unusual because they were not taught in any Ancient Runes class, nor were they mentioned anywhere in any Ancient Runes texts. These Runes were knowledge only known to members of a magical race of creatures known as Sirens.

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 **[ANOTHER INFO DUMP INCOMING - PLEASE TRY TO READ THIS ONE]**

No, not the Sirens mentioned in Greek mythology, those are actually Ancient Merpeople, which lived in Ancient times and had a completely different appearance to what they look like now. The Ancient Merpeople used to look just like the Mermaids depicted in other myths and legends and were very gifted at music with either instruments or with their enchanting voices. They lured Sailors to their covens in order to enslave them or eat them. Over time, due to mating with each other and also mating with sea creatures the Ancient Merpeople became the Merpeople that exist today, twisted looking creatures that are no longer able to sing above sea level and are forced to reside in the depths of the Waters of the World as they can no longer breathe air for long periods of time. Between their black slanted almond shaped eyes, sharp shark-like teeth and overall putrid grey skin, they resemble very little of their ancient counterparts.

However, some Ancient Merpeople did not enslave the Sailors they lured to their Home, nor did they eat them, instead they fell in love and mated with them. Over time, the offspring from the mating between an Ancient Merperson and a Human became the first Sirens.

Sirens have legs just like regular Humans, unlike the Merpeople, and are described as possessing ethereal beauty. They are also an inherently magical race, with a natural born affinity for Water and Air Magic, but are at a disadvantage when using Fire and Earth Magic.

The Magic that is taught and wielded by Witches and Wizards does not encompass a very large range of spells that use the element of Water or Air, and so over time the Sirens developed their own unique branch of powerful Magic that could only be used by those with the affinity for Water and Air Magic at the level of Sirens. The knowledge of this branch of Magic is kept a secret and only passed on to other Sirens and those that are greatly trusted. In the wrong hands, the Magic could be used to cause disasters on an immense scale, evidenced by the incident with the lost city of Atlantis that abused the knowledge of Siren Water and Air spells taught to them as a gift in order to advance their Society. The city used Water Runes to power their city, and with this power they could invent the use of technology long before electricity was discovered. But with the over use of these Runes all over the city, they ended up flooding themselves and the city was lost beneath the waves forever, along with most of the technology they developed, which to this day is still more advanced than what we have.

In modern times, Sirens have become quite rare and widespread and only a portion of the original vast knowledge of their powerful Magic has not been lost to time. Also, aside from their beauty, Sirens are quite hard to spot in a crowd and so you would never be able to tell if one passed you in the street, you would only notice that they were immensely pretty. Also at first appearances, one would be even more hard pressed to tell which was which if you had a Veela and a Siren stand next to each other as they very closely rival each other in beauty, most would say a Siren was generally more pretty in appearance, unless you had a male with you as the Veela's natural allure would kick in and cause them to forcefully focus their attention on the Veela. A Siren's version of the allure would be their voices which still have the enchanting quality that the Ancient Merpeople possessed, and this is only enhanced tenfold if a Siren starts to sing, it is almost impossible for a Siren to sing badly even if they try to do it on purpose. A Siren's allure also works on members of both genders, whereas a Veela's allure works only on members of the opposite gender, the reason behind this fact is unknown.

 **[END OF INFO DUMP]**

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Lord Voldemort was unaware of all this knowledge as he did not know that Lady Arlene Eliana Potter née Lagunov was in fact a Siren, which was not due to lack of perceptiveness on the Dark Lord's part; Lady Potter worked very hard to make sure this information was not revealed while the War was going on, even going as far as to fabricate rumours that their Child was a boy instead of a girl in case any one used the birth of a girl as evidence that Lady Potter and her daughter were both Sirens (Sirens only produced female children, and every Child was a full Siren, not a Half-breed) and discriminated against as 'Dark Creatures'.

You could also say that the reason why the Potters were so involved with the War was because they did not want Voldemort or his Death-Eaters taking charge of Britain, no matter what. If they did take control, a new age of repression would occur and Muggleborns and Magical Creatures and Half-breeds would take the brunt of it. Also, as things were now, it was not difficult to hide the information of your heritage from the Ministry as most of their workers were lazy and lax, which meant most Half-breeds and any Magical Creatures that resemble normal Humans were able to live their lives properly. Sadly Werewolves and Vampires did not come under this category as due to the... 'quirks'... of their races in particular, they were more closely monitored as a precaution; so it was very hard to hide if you were one of them.

Not that any of this knowledge would be particularly helpful to the Dark Lord at this very moment in time... but as he was struck down by the rebound of his very own killing curse and what remained of his soul became disconnected with his mortal body, which perished... aside from the very obvious pain he was feeling... he felt oddly impressed by Lady Potter's cunning.

And he was also intrigued by the power that she evidently had access to. Perhaps it would be beneficial if he made a note to himself (once he possessed a body again) to research the magic that was used... one thing he was confident on was that this magic was not of... Wizarding origin... perhaps some sort of Water Creature?

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November 1st 1998 - Hogwarts Castle  


In a Magical Castle, far up north in the highlands of Scotland, a wizened Wizard well over 100 years old sat pondering his plans for the coming years.

It has been a whole 24 hours since the event happened, and yet he still could not believe that the Dark Lord Voldemort, the most powerful and feared Dark Lord the Wizarding World has ever had to face, was vanquished by the little toddler that lay sleeping in an improvised cot beside him.

The age old leader of the Light gave a quiet sigh as he pulled out a Sherbet Lemon candy and placed it in his mouth. Almost immediately, the candy worked its own kind of Magic on the man, and he felt himself relax.

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore was getting too old to be involved in this kind of affair, and yet every time he felt like resting his dusty old bones and moving on to the next Great Adventure, he felt some kind of sentient force telling him that it wasn't his time yet, that he still had something left to do before he moved on. Yet at the same time, he was becoming highly suspicious that his own old age was getting to him. What more could he do at this age? He was hardly in shape enough to climb the Grand Staircase here at Hogwarts, let alone do something like face another Dark Lord. How many was he supposed to face in his lifetime? He had already faced 2 noteworthy ones in addition to many minor Dark Lords that had attempted to rise to power.

And once again, Dumbledore was reminded of what he was originally pondering, for these were not normal times; far from it, in fact.

Dumbledore was almost certain that despite arriving at the scene at the Potter's House in Godric's Hollow and confirming what happened himself, Voldemort was not gone for good. Despite what the prophecy said, what could a child do to a Dark Lord at the age of 1?

No, this was merely just a temporary setback in Voldemort's plans, and he'd return soon to continue what he started.

Which was why Dumbledore was currently sitting in the Headmaster's Office (His office) at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, consuming Sherbet Lemons and watching over a toddler instead of celebrating the Dark Lord's demise with the rest of the Wizarding World.

He would remain alert for any signs of the return of the Dark Lord while the rest of the Wizarding World grew complacent in what they perceived to now be a time of peace. He also needed to decide as soon as possible what plans were to be put in place by the time Voldemort did return, and most of them centred on the little girl that was currently enjoying her sleep not far from where he sat.

Dumbledore did not receive his reputation as a powerful and wise Wizard for no reason. He had done research in his spare time when not getting involved with the War effort and he knew of the existence of the Horcruxes (objects that contained pieces of a person's soul) that Voldemort produced in order to ensure his own immortality. One need only hold all the right evidence and knowledge to piece the puzzle together.

He was also able to recognise when he was in the presence of one, and after examining the magical signature of the dark soul fragment, he came to the conclusion that Voldemort had inadvertently created another Horcrux, which turned out to be little Olivia Dorea Potter herself.

He theorized that after murdering the girl's parents using Magic, Voldemort's soul was split into pieces once again, and when the Killing Curse backfired and struck Voldemort, he became a shade spirit – condemned to wander the World in search of a body. But the piece of Voldemort's soul that split off from the rest went on its own search for a body to reside in and latched on to the nearest living thing which was Olivia.

There were ways in which Dumbledore could use this knowledge in his plans to his advantage and finally vanquish Voldemort from the World when he returned... yet the reason why Dumbledore was currently debating with himself was because he wasn't sure if he could condemn the life of such an innocent, precious little Magical Child after she already lost her own Parents. Could he live with himself if he only added to her pain in the future? But then again, it was all for the Greater Good…

Slowly, Dumbledore stood from his seat and strode over to the cot where Olivia lay, to check up on her. Just as before, the toddler remained blissfully asleep, dreaming of whatever 1 year olds dreamed of.

The old Professor couldn't help but smile at such an innocent sight, which caused further turmoil in the mind of the Wizard as he was now even more torn in his decision than ever. What gave him the right to intervene in someone else's life? Would the ends justify the means? Could he live with himself if he went through with these plans?

Would Ariana approve?

The tired old man was interrupted in his musings when he felt a small tug on his long beard. He looked down to see if he had caught his beard on something again when he found the end being held in the gentle but firm grip of a now awake Olivia.

The curious toddler was currently fascinated in this long white hairy thing in front of her when she awoke and had the irresistible urge to pull on it.

She gave the beard another tug, this time with more force, and when the Professor made a surprised grunt noise she started laughing and giving the beard more tugs.

This was the final straw that broke the Camel's back, so they say… Dumbledore was decided on what he needed to do.

He could not, in good conscience, condemn the life of a young innocent Child and live with himself afterwards – he wasn't that senile yet. No, instead he'd find another way to bring down Voldemort once and for all when he returned and satisfy the Greater Good. It seems that there was much that needed to be done, such as removing the Horcrux from Olivia, carrying out the Potter's Will and finding suitable guardians that would take good care of little Olivia. If he remembered correctly from when he was witnessing the signing of the Potter Will, Olivia's priority guardians were Sirius Black and his wife Lily Black née Evans.

The problem was that Sirius was currently in custody under the suspicion of betraying the Potters and Longbottoms and murdering Peter Pettigrew and a few Muggles. If no action was taken soon it was looking likely that Sirius would be thrown into Azkaban without a trial, leaving Lily all alone, and that can't happen – not when the real betrayer was Peter, who was the real secret keeper to the Potters and the Longbottoms. Dumbledore would need to intervene and get Sirius a trial to clear his name so he could take care of Olivia with Lily.

And then there was the matter of training her to face the Dark Lord when the time was right… the only question is when that is.

Dumbledore continued considering this matter as he picked Olivia up, who still hadn't released his beard, and started making his way down to the Hogwarts Infirmary where the most talented Medi-Witch he knew currently resided – Madam Poppy Pomfrey.

She could examine young Olivia to make sure no lasting effects would effect her future health as a result of recent events, meanwhile Albus was going to devote his new-found time and energy to finding a way to remove the Horcrux that had latched itself to Olivia, and then preparing her for Voldemort's return.

Wait! He forgot his Sherbet Lemons!

* * *

 **AN:** _Yes, I altered the Canon information on Sirens. According to my sources on the Internet, Sirens were in fact the Canon version of the Ancient Merpeople that I mentioned earlier in the chapter, and they bore great resemblance to the Mermaids of myth and legend. Also the Mermaid that Harry sees in the Prefect's Bathroom in the Goblet of Fire was actually supposed to be a Siren._

 _And yes, I changed the pairings of the Marauders so Sirius is happily married to Lily and James met a Siren named Arlene and they were married and had Olivia in 1997, more on how they met and other stuff later on as Olivia learns the same information. Don't worry, aside from the years, all the other dates are still the same, so Olivia will be born on the 31_ _st_ _July 1997, Neville will be born 30_ _th_ _July 1997 etc._

 _Told you I was going to change things.  
_

 _Also, once again, I apologise for the info dumps in this chapter, didn't mean it to be this long but I have changed a few things here and there and thought they were important to know so there weren't any confusions later on._

 _Thanks for reading, hope to write for you soon :)_


	2. Meet the Greengrass'

**AN _:_ **

_To assuage people's concerns, I'm going to state here that by being a Siren, Olivia will not have the power of a God. Although I plan to make Olivia powerful enough to handle herself in a fight, she won't be invincible. She may be given a larger than average Magical Core but I don't mean that to be **because** she's a Siren. She'll have her epic moments, sure, but she'll never be on Dumbledore's level until long after the man himself is dead and she is beginning to reach the same age. She'll come to rely more on finesse and skill than power, as well as the arsenal of spells at her disposal.  
_

 _I'm aiming to make Sirens a sort of Cousin Race to the Veela. Sirens have some form of an allure but it will be associated with their Voices. A Siren talking normally is on the same level as a passive Veela allure (people become dazed and pay extra attention to them… not that they weren't already paying attention to them before) and when a Siren sings it will be on the same level as a Veela allure on full power._

 _This should make Olivia's interactions with people interesting, because while it is easier for her to hide her allure by keeping quiet, she can't become mute for the rest of her life. Plus her allure works on both Males and Females instead of Males only, like the Veela. Luckily the Siren allure is less obvious than the Veela allure because half the time Siren look like normal pretty people, whereas a Veela's allure is never truly off so Witches and Wizards have a much harder time figuring out if someone is a Siren than figuring out if someone is a Veela._

 _If you want to know what Olivia looks like, check out the cover photo (of course, at the moment Olivia is only 11 years old so imagine her younger). The person in the picture is Lindsay Ellingson if you want to know… Google "_ **Lindsay Ellingson Wallpaper"** _and click on the images tab to see all the images I'm using as inspiration to base Olivia's appearance off of. I can't describe very well, but pictures can speak a thousand words so I like to defer to images you can look up to see what their appearance is._

 **Disclaimer: Anything you recognise is NOT mine, nor do I claim that it is.**

* * *

30th July 2008 - Black Manor  


' _Sirens are a magical race of creatures that were supposedly produced from the mating of some of the Ancient Merpeople with Humans and even Wizards, but there is no evidence to support this theory. Sirens are inherently magical and share many similarities with the magical race known as Veela._

 _Unlike their supposed ancestors, the Ancient Merpeople, Sirens are an all-female race and can only give birth to more females. They are required to mate with other races, but any offspring produced are always full-blooded Siren; the reason why this happens is unknown._

 _Sirens are naturally gifted with Water and Air magic, and are also gifted at Ice magic to a lesser extent; however this causes the Race to be at a disadvantage when wielding Fire and Earth magic. They also have the ability to enchant members of both the Male and Female gender through the use of their Voice. Use of the medium of singing appears to only increase the strength of the enchantment tenfold. It is possible to resist this enchantment by…'_

"OLIVIA, BREAKFAST IS READY!"

Olivia Dorea Potter released a scream so loud, she would have made a Banshee proud. If there was anyone in Black Manor still asleep up until this point, they would definitely be awake now.

With what dignity she could muster, Olivia slowly picked herself up from the floor of the Black Library and dusted herself off, all the while throwing a glare at her little brother in all but blood. If looks could kill, Olivia would be mistaken for a Basilisk.

Adalius (Adam) Sirius Black had the nerve to look innocent as he started slowly creeping towards the door.

"What? Mum told me to come get you for Breakfast,"

Olivia sighed as she picked up the book that she was reading and marked her place with her trusty bookmark.

"Tell Mum I'll be there in just a minute," Olivia replied.

With a nod, Adam ran off to who knows where.

Before her interruption, Olivia was reading a rather thick book on all the different Magical Creatures that existed in the World, or at least all of the ones that were ever documented. Although the entire book was fascinating to her, she held special interest for the information the book offered on Sirens.

Just recently, she had begun to show signs of developing her Siren abilities. Ever since she was old enough to understand, her foster and godmother Lily Black née Evans had informed her of her true heritage, but only now had the point truly sunken in:

She was different.

Olivia was thankful that her creature heritage wasn't too conspicuous. If she became something with wings or a tail she would have a much harder time trying to hide it. Lily had been explicitly clear that being different in the Wizarding World wasn't considered a good thing (even though Lily and the whole family embraced being different) and if someone she didn't trust ever learned about her secret, her life would become a lot less fun. Olivia was a smart enough girl to decide that she didn't want to find out for herself how bad her life could get.

She quickly went and deposited the book in her room, which had a lock on the door, so she could read peacefully without the risk of cheeky 7 year olds scaring her. Sirius was a bad influence on all of them.

Chuckling to herself, she left her room and made her way to the Dining Room.

Black Manor wasn't anything spectacular. When Lily and Sirius got married, not long after Olivia's own birth parents got married, both Lily and Sirius agreed that neither of them wanted to live in Grimmauld Place – too dark and dingy for their tastes. Fortunately for them, Sirius was the last living member of the main branch of the Most Ancient and Most Noble House of Black, and he wasn't disowned from the family as he was led to believe, so he became the new Lord Black.

With the vast amount of Wealth the House of Black possessed at his disposal, Sirius bought a new House in Knightsbridge, London and moved in as soon as possible (with Grimmauld Place being given to the Order of the Phoenix to be used as an emergency safehouse – the Wards were strong enough to protect against a full invasion party for more than enough time to evacuate). Of course, anything that Sirius or Lily disliked was quickly rectified with the help of expansion charms and other Magic.

The House was situated on the corner of Pelham Crescent and looked like a small white mansion on the outside. On the Lower Ground floor were 3 Bedrooms, a large Bathroom – complete with a Glass Shower Cubicle and a large White Porcelain Bathtub, access to the Garage – where they stored Sirius' flying Motorcycle, Lily's Ferrari F430 Spider in Ferrari's trademark Red colour and the family car which was a 7 seater Audi Q7. Also located on the Lower Ground floor were their very own Vaults for personal use. They weren't anywhere near the same size as the Vaults at Gringotts, but they were big enough to store anything they wanted to keep close at hand.

On the Ground floor was the Front door entrance and the Front Hall, a lavishly decorated formal Reception room which had enough space to host a large social function, a large Dining Room that could accommodate a small banquet if the need ever arises and connected to it was a modern Kitchen which was also furnished with Muggle Technology such as a Microwave Oven, a very large Fridge and Freezer to feed a large family, an Electric Oven etc. Anything even a Muggle would ever need in a Kitchen. Through the formal Reception Room, you could gain access to the Garden Terrace which was the perfect size to host Barbeques with friends on a hot summer's day. There was also a full sized pool in the Garden, but it was designed so that when it wasn't used in the autumn and the winter, the Patio could extend to cover it and it would look like there was never a pool in the first place. The formal Reception Room was also where the Floo was.

On the First floor you would find the informal Reception Room or the Living Room – with 3 black leather sofas, 2 black leather recliners, a 50 inch Plasma TV, a stereo that played CDs and mp3s which was connected to a 7.1 Surround Sound system, and a full entertainment system such as games consoles, DvD players etc. Also on the First floor was the Library containing the entire collection of books owned by the Blacks which were all moved over from the Library in Grimmauld Place (plus more that were found in the Black Vaults at Gringotts). Then there was Olivia's Bedroom, 2 Guest Bedrooms and another large Bathroom which was very similar to the Bathroom on the lower ground floor.

Olivia's Bedroom was painted Lime Green and Light Blue (her favourite colours) with a Snow White carpet and Ceiling. One wall of her room was just a large mirror which could be opened to reveal her entire wardrobe. Standing against the centre of the wall on the left was a double sized bed with white sheets, which faced the windows and the balcony – charmed to be magically sheltered from all forms of precipitation and furnished with 2 sun-loungers and a small round glass table surrounded by 2 metal outdoor chairs – that overlooked the rest of Pelham Crescent. Olivia was extremely happy to have the one room in the house that had its own balcony, but the catch was that if any of her family ever wanted to go on the balcony, they came through her room. Next to the bed was a bedside stand with her alarm clock and a bedside lamp.

Furthest from the door, and on the opposite side of the room from her mirror wardrobe, was another large window that started at the floor and rose 2 metres which overlooked the rest of the crescent. The window very nearly spanned the whole wall. With a flick of a wand (or a push of a button on the bit of wall next to the window) the glass in this window can darken so no-one could see through it. Positioned in front of, and facing, the largest window in Olivia's room was her own wooden desk where she kept her Laptop and other bits and bobs. Sometimes she would get distracted while she was on her laptop and would just stare out of the large window for hours. Suspended just before the ceiling of her room, was a long shelf upon which she kept her own collection of books and trinkets. The shelf itself ran along the entire length of the wall that her bed rested against, and round the corner to span the length of the same wall as her large window. If she needed anything from the shelf, she could either levitate or summon it to herself.

Finally, on the Second floor there was a Private Study – nicknamed "Sirius' Room for Sirius Business" which Sirius enchanted so that only he could lock and unlock the Study, Adam's Bedroom, another Bathroom just like the others and the Master Bedroom – with a King sized Bed and it's own walk-in wardrobe which you could walk through to reach the ensuite Bathroom following the same style as the previous 3.

With the exception of the formal Reception Room, the Dining Room and the House's external appearance; the entire House was furnished and decorated like an ultra-modern Muggle House.

All Muggle devices inside the house that required electricity to operate were properly insulated (thanks to the innovations of a new electronics company that was started by a group of Muggleborns in America) from the effects of Magical fields so they all functioned correctly... which meant that Sirius still had to pay the electrical bill on top of all the other bills at the end of every month. To this day he still believed that they could live without the extra cost, not unlike most of the traditional British Pureblood Households... but if it kept the Wife and the kids happy, then he wasn't going to complain.

The House wasn't on the same level of grandeur as a proper magical Pureblood Mansion, but it was more than perfect as a home for the Black family plus Olivia, and she personally loved it. It was also protected by almost every kind of spell, charm or ward you could think of; with the exception of the Fidelius charm as use of that charm was borderline paranoia if you didn't have a good reason why you needed to be hiding. The protections on the House even disguised the use of Magic, so Olivia could use Magic in the House and not get caught for underage Magic outside of Hogwarts. The wards also prevented the family from needing to worry about any Muggles catching them while they use Magic. Olivia couldn't quite wrap her head around how this worked... it acted like a specialised notice-me-not charm that only acted when a Muggle was close to seeing one of the family use Magic. Well, at least it seems to have worked perfectly so far.

Olivia never felt safer anywhere else, but she also didn't feel like she was in a gilded cage when she was here as the protections on the House worked so well that you never noticed them. They also allowed for normal interactions so the Black family were still able to interact normally with their Muggle neighbours and they still had the problem of regular nosy neighbours and perverted peeping toms if they weren't careful, plus they could leave at any time they wanted – not that Lily or Sirius would let them out much on their own. Their protectiveness was kind of endearing.

Jumping the steps 2 at a time, Olivia reached the Dining Room just as the rest of the family sat down for Breakfast. At the head of the table sat Sirius Orion Black, still as much the dashingly handsome man as he was in his youth with his famous mane of Black hair and Onyx eyes. However, this morning he hadn't taken the time to sort his bed-hair out, and his eyes looked dead to the world.

To his left sat his youngest son Adam (7) who looked like the perfect Male cross between Sirius and Lily with his short deep Ruby Red hair and Onyx coloured eyes. Next to him sat the eldest son of the Black family, James Charles Black (10). Named after Sirius' best friend and Olivia's own father, he essentially looked like a carbon copy of Sirius with his Black hair (which he was trying to grow out to Sirius' length) and the same Onyx eyes.

Across from the 2 boys, on Sirius' right, sat Violet Ivy Black (9) and James' twin – Arlene Eliana Black (10). Violet (who was called Vi by the rest of the family except from Lily, who especially loved her proper name) was the opposite of Adam with Sirius' Black hair (which flowed like silk down her shoulders) and Lily's Avada Kedavra Green eyes. Arlene was also the opposite of her twin, James. She looked like a carbon copy of her mother with deep Ruby Red hair (but in a pixie cut that was long on the top so she could sweep her hair to the side with lots of salon-grade hairspray) and the same mesmerising eyes.

Finally, at the other end of the table from Sirius, sat the woman herself – Lily Black née Evans – who (despite being in her late 30s) did not look a day older than 20. Her trademark Ruby Red hair still gleamed in the light as it fell down, loose, to around the middle of her back, and her Killing Curse Green eyes still gave off a magical glow which was as bright as ever.

At times Olivia felt so out of place among the family of Redheads and Raven-heads with her long, permanently wavy (a product of the mixture of her Siren beauty genes and the famous Potter hair gene), shining Blonde hair that turned dark dirty blonde at the roots and reached down to the middle of her back, and her Sea Green eyes that people swore were glowing with their own source of magical power. However Lily and Sirius never tired of assuring Olivia again and again that she was a part of their family whether she liked it or not. No matter her birth parents, they would always consider her one of their own Children and would love her unconditionally.

"Morning," Olivia cheerfully chirped as she took her place between Violet and Arlene.

In return, she received several similar greetings, whereas from Sirius she received a loud yawn instead. She was so glad that her family were immune to her Siren allure, because they all considered her as a family member, but even they couldn't resist her when she started singing even the simplest songs such as Twinkle Twinkle.

"Who decided it would be funny to impersonate a Banshee this morning?" Sirius asked. Adam started grinning stupidly at the reminder of what he did.

"Olivia. I caught her sticking her nose in the books again,"

With comprehension dawning on his face, Sirius called for one of the two House Elves that served the Black family. Sirius was more than happy to leave Kreacher to continue looking after Grimmauld Place.

"Flipsy," with nary a pop, a young female House Elf dressed in a small pink polo shirt and a white skirt with white ankle socks and white trainers on their feet appeared.

"Yes Sir?" Flipsy spoke with ease unusual for a normal House Elf. Lily insisted that she teach them how to speak properly, as well as insisting that the Elves should be treated well. This caring attitude was passed on to all the Children she raised.

"Can I have an espresso please?"

"Of course Sir," Flipsy did a quick bow before disappearing. She wasn't gone for more than 5 seconds before an espresso, served in a typical tea cup, appeared next to Sirius' breakfast plate.

"Thank you Flipsy,"

Lily gave a quick disapproving look as she saw Sirius take a sip of his espresso.

"Drinking one of those every morning is not going to do any favours for your health," She said.

Sirius merely shrugged with a smile as he started on his Breakfast. Olivia had been watching them the whole time and decided to add her own two cents.

"If you need to wake up in the morning, I can always conjure some Ice cold water over your head," Olivia pulled out her training wand and gave it a spin in her hand as she smiled cutely at Sirius. Lily gave a grin that looked positively demonic.

"That sounds like a good idea…" The colour in Sirius' face drained faster than you could say "Uh-oh,"

His eyes darted rapidly between the espresso in front of him and the two females grinning at him. Eventually he turned to the espresso.

"I'm sorry, but this isn't going to work out. It's not you it's me. I hope you understand." and then he vanished the entire cup of espresso.

Lily and Olivia both looked downtrodden at an opportunity lost as they went back to their Breakfasts. At that moment, the family heard a tapping noise coming from the front Window, being made by an owl. Olivia's eyes immediately lit up in anticipation.

"It's my Hogwarts letter!"

Sirius and Lily both shared a smile as Olivia ran to the window and let the owl in. She petted the owl gently and thanked it by offering some of her Breakfast, before taking the letter and letting the owl fly back out the Window. By the time she had opened the envelope, she was bouncing on the spot.

 _ **HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY**_

 _ **Headmaster: Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore**_

 _ **(Order or Merlin – First Class, Grand Sorcerer, Chief Warlock - Wizengamot, Supreme Mugwump – International Confederation of Wizards)**_

 _Dear Miss Potter,_

 _We are pleased to inform you that you have an available place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry._

 _Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment._

 _Term begins on September 1st. We await your reply no later than the July 31_ _st_ _._

 _Yours sincerely,_

 _ **Minerva McGonagall**_

 _ **Deputy Headmistress**_

 _ **Students will require:**_

 _Uniform:_

 _3 Sets of Plain Work Robes (Black)_

 _3 Sets of Hogwarts Jumpers_

 _3 Sets of White Shirts/Blouses_

 _3 Sets of Black Slacks/Skirts and Tights or Long Socks_

 _2 Hogwarts Ties_

 _2 Pairs of Black Shoes_

 _One Plain Pointed Hat for day wear_

 _One Pair of Protective Gloves (Dragonhide or similar)_

 _One Winter Cloak (Black with Silver fastenings)_

 _(Please note that all students' clothes should carry name-tags at all times)_

 _Books:_

 _ **The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1**_ _by Miranda Goshawk_

 _ **A History of Magic**_ _by Bathilda Bagshot_

 _ **Magical Theory**_ _by Adalbert Waffling_

 _ **A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration**_ _by Emeric Switch_

 _ **One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi**_ _by Phyllida Spore_

 _ **Magical Drafts and Potions**_ _by Arsenius Jigger_

 _ **Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them**_ _by Newt Scamander_

 _ **The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection**_ _by Quentin Trimble_

 _Other:_

 _1 Wand_

 _1 Cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)_

 _1 set of Glass or Crystal Phials_

 _1 Telescope_

 _1 set of Brass Scales_

 _Students may also bring an Owl, a Cat, a Toad or an authentic Familiar_

 _ **Parents are reminded that First Years are not allowed their own Broomsticks**_

Olivia hadn't even finished reading the whole letter before she started squealing for joy while bouncing on the spot, with her siblings attempting to read the letter over her shoulder and Sirius and Lily smiling fondly at their pseudo-eldest's excitement.

Eventually Sirius and Lily had to bring Olivia back down to Earth, otherwise she'd end up jumping and squealing on the same spot for the whole day. She was just as easily excitable as her Mother was…

"Olivia, sweetie, please finish your Breakfast. You still have lessons today, remember?"

For Olivia, it seemed as if time stopped for just a moment as she remembered her schedule for today. Her shoulders noticeably sagged and the joy and excitement which seemed to be rolling off of her just moments before was replaced with gloom and misery. The rest of the Black family couldn't help but wonder if possessing exaggerated emotions and rapid mood changes were both Siren traits.

Olivia really wanted to go to Diagon Alley right away to get what supplies she didn't already have. She was mainly anticipating getting herself a proper Wand instead of relying on her practice Wand. While her practice Wand has served her well throughout her years of training, she didn't feel at ease with it, and she felt no connection to it apart from its sentimental value to her. From what she learned from Lily and Sirius, having a proper Wand was so much better. A Witch or Wizard felt at one with their Wand. With the right Wand, spells and such will be much easier to cast, as well as more powerful. Olivia was curious about what her Wand would be made of. Will it have a piece of Dragon as its core? Or will it be another Magical Creature? Will it be made of Oak? Holly? Pine? Or a rarer Wood she hadn't thought of? She couldn't wait… but then again, she had to, because of her lessons today. She'll just have to drag Lily and Sirius with her to Diagon Alley later.

As Olivia finished her Breakfast, one would swear they could see a visible grey cloud hanging over her pretty little head. Both Sirius and Lily couldn't help but find Olivia's behaviour very cute. Even though she was the oldest of the Children in the household and she did her best to be the ideal older sibling for them all, at times she could be the most Childish out of all of them (and this happened more often than the girl herself was willing to admit). Still, it was part of Olivia's charm, and her siblings still loved her very much. In fact, they utterly adored her (in between the usual sibling quarrels of course).

When she finally finished, her mood had improved a bit. Giving a quick thank you to the Elves as her plate and cutlery vanished; she left the table to change out of her pyjamas (a plain white tank top and light blue shorts with white polka dots) into her training uniform.

Today she decided to wear Charcoal Grey Cargo Pants (with many pockets) that were form fitting but didn't restrict movement or reduce mobility, a simple Light Grey V-neck long-sleeved top, Dragonhide Combat Boots and Black fingerless Gloves.

She strapped her 2 special Dragonhide Wand-Holsters to both her forearms, just underneath the wrist; one for her main Wand and one for her back-up Wand. While dual-wielding was pretty much useless in most cases (most people didn't have enough concentration to be able to focus on casting 2 different things at the same time, and aim both of them accurately with the exception of aiming both Wands at the same target) unless you were going on an all-out assault and had no cover – in which case, one of the Wands could be used to erect a shield for yourself – it was still a good idea to carry two Wands in the event that you were ever disarmed.

The Holsters were charmed to be invisible in every way to all but the wearer once they were secured to the arm and they also had charms that prevented the Wand from being summoned straight from the holsters themselves. There was a spring load mechanism in place which launched the Wand straight into your hand with just a flick of the wrist. It took Olivia many hours of practice before she could operate the mechanism and successfully catch her Wand every time with either hand, without looking. She was given the 2 holsters by Dumbledore on her 8th Birthday.

Olivia also wore her Diesel 'Mr Daddy' Watch. There were occasions where you needed to watch the time, but couldn't cast the Tempus charm for whatever reason. This was where having a Watch would be very handy.

The Watch was Black with Silver Metal highlights and Black leather straps. Olivia was aware that this model of Watch was typically worn by Men, but Olivia thought it looked so cool. On the Watch face was a main analogue clock, 2 smaller analogue clocks (one with numbers and one with just plain lines), a digital time face, a date window and a Chronograph function (stopwatch). With this Watch, you could tell the time for 4 different time zones, but she set both the main dial and the digital clock to UK time. As Britain wasn't large enough to encompass more than one time zone, the two extra dials were set to the time in Paris and the time in New York, just for fun. Olivia hardly went to those places regularly. The Watch was charmed to be indestructible and would be able to survive almost anything short of a spell with the same power level as the Killing Curse being shot at it. It should even survive being dropped to the bottom of the deepest Ocean. The only thing that wouldn't survive would be the battery as it would have to run out of power eventually. This was why Olivia had no reservations on bringing her trusty Watch to training.

Olivia never understood fully how indestructability charms worked; on some things they worked fine, on other things they didn't work at all. Do they work on people or living objects? What about things like Wands? If they did, why weren't Wands charmed to be indestructible? With these charms at the disposal of the Wizarding World, shouldn't all Windows be nigh impossible to break? Actually, Olivia had never tried breaking a Window in the Wizarding World before… she'd have to try doing it someday.

As she walked out of her room, she started pulling her hair into a ponytail. As always, she met Adam in the Front Hall, standing just outside the formal Reception room, with the same question as always right on his lips.

"Can I come with you? Pleeeeeease?"

Olivia smiled, but said: "Sorry Adam, but Dad would flip if he found you suddenly gone, and Mum would grow wings and start breathing fire,"

"We can ask them, they're still in the Dining room together. Pretty pleeeeeeeeease?" Adam then pulled the puppy dog eye trick.

' _Looks like he's been practising it since last time. He's almost perfected it._ ' Olivia thought to herself.

Deciding that for once it wouldn't hurt to give in, and she was also feeling in a weird mood today, she went and asked her Parents if Adam could watch her training.

"Mum, Dad, is it ok if Adam comes with me to watch my training? He's been asking me for weeks now,"

Lily immediately looked like she wanted to say No, but Sirius beat her to the punch: "Of course he can. Make sure he doesn't run into any trouble while he's with you, ok?"

Olivia was a little surprised at the quick response (she expected them to say No) but nodded and left, as Sirius turned to his wife to explain himself before she tore into him: "Honey, as much as we choose to ignore it, our Children are growing up. They can't rely on us forever, they need to experience the World for themselves and learn to become independent eventually. Letting Adam watch Olivia while she trains will be a learning experience for him. Besides, they're going to a safe place anyway, hardly anything can happen to them there."

As much as she wanted to protest this, Lily knew that her husband was right, but that did not mean that she was happy about it.

Then came a cry from the Front Hall which sounded a lot like Arlene: "Mum, Dad, can the rest of us come too?"

Once again, almost on reflex, Lily was about to give her response (a big fat No) but Sirius was faster than her: "Yeah, have fun Pups! Behave yourselves and don't mess with Olivia's teachers, or we'll hear about it!"

There was a perfectly synchronised response of: "Yes Dad, bye Dad! Bye Mum!" before the Floo fired up 5 successive times, and they were gone.

It was also at this moment when Sirius realised he was now going to face the legendary wrath of Lily… alone… he may have made a grave mistake…

* * *

One by one, the Children of the Black family stepped out of the Floo in the Headmaster's Office at Hogwarts, with the exception of Olivia, who fell out of the Floo and landed on her face instead.

"Merlin, I hate the Floo, and I know for sure that it hates me too." She mumbled as she picked herself up.

Albus Dumbledore smiled as he patiently waited until he had all of the Children's attention. When the Children (bar Olivia who was dusting herself off) noticed Dumbledore was standing in the room, they ran to hug him.

"Grandpa Albus!" they cheered.

Ever since Dumbledore helped clear Sirius' name and left Olivia in their care, he'd kept close contact with the family, mainly to make sure that Olivia was brought up right and so that he could determine when he should start organising sufficient training for her. However, as time passed and the Black family expanded in size, Dumbledore grew closer and closer with the family, and now he was considered as an honorary Grandfather to all the Children, a title he very much enjoyed and embraced since all of the Children's real Grandparents were gone from this World.

"It's so good to see you all again Children! My, you've all grown since I last saw you! How are you all?"

The Kids then all started trying to talk to Dumbledore at the same time, and while Dumbledore was a man of many talents, having 4 conversations at the same time was not one of them.

"I'd love to hear all about your stories later, but right now Olivia has a training session that she needs to get to. Olivia, today you'll have Alastor Moody as your instructor." Olivia shuddered a little when Dumbledore mentioned her training was with Moody for today.

Olivia was scheduled throughout the week to attend training sessions with instructors who were experts in their respected fields. Her exact schedule was randomised by Dumbledore himself to keep Olivia on her toes and to also make her work hard in all fields of her training in her own time so she was always prepared for whatever training session she had next. She also trained with a large number of different instructors in order to pick up and learn many different techniques and styles from the best and help her develop her own.

Since she started training when she was 7 (4 years ago), she'd been tutored in:

Defence against the Dark Arts (she was currently close to finishing the curriculum for 4th Year)

Combat Magic (Very similar to Defence against the Dark Arts, but just more focused on actually fighting)

Physical Training (which meant a lap through the many twists and turns of Hogwarts or a lap through the Forbidden Forest during Term-time, in addition to exercises like Push-ups and Sit-ups and even Swimming. She was also taught many different Martial Arts, for when she couldn't use Magic but needed to defend herself. Very useful for catching most Witches and Wizards by surprise, plus its hard to defend against if your attacker is fast enough.)

Mental Training (Occlumency exercises with a bit of Legilimency practice done in secret – the use of this magic on another person was deemed illegal, but you never knew when the ability would be extremely useful. Also, the use of passive Legilimency was almost impossible to prove and also quite hard to notice unless you were very good at Occlumency. Passive Legilimency could be used to check if someone was lying to you and also allowed you to better read people's true emotions behind any metaphorical masks they were wearing, but nothing more – which was contrary to the belief that your entire mind could be accessed via passive Legilimency. Proper Legilimency required a Wand and an incantation, and that was what gave people complete access to your mind, but it just so happened to be much easier to catch the act and apprehend the caster.)

Charms and Transfiguration Training (The curriculum of her Training was specialised to focus on Charms and Transfigurations that would help in a fight, as well as anything else she'd find very useful on the side)

Research on the Dark Arts (Dumbledore was eventually convinced by many others that it was better to teach Olivia about the Dark Arts than to let her try to learn by herself and get consumed by them, this subject focused more heavily on Dark spells as well as some borderline Dark spells than what was taught in DADA)

Wandless casting (It seems that the most Olivia can do on this front is cast a few Charms, with the most complex being a short ranged Summoning Charm, no matter how much she worked to improve)

Siren Magic (This wasn't really taught by anyone. Dumbledore was one of the few trusted individuals who were aware of Olivia's true heritage. Even though Dumbledore did not possess the required affinity to wield it, he was intrigued by this branch of Magic and over the years he had found and collected several texts on the subject written by Sirens from long ago and there were even a few texts that seemed to be written by Atlanteans. For these sessions, Dumbledore gave her time on her own to study the texts he had available. Of course, Olivia had to go and learn Latin and many other languages first before being able to study these texts, but once she started learning from them, she found that it was definitely worth spending all that time to learn so many different languages. Although Olivia may be quite adept, in the opinion of her instructors, at Charms and Transfiguration and have a talent for Combat Magic, she was better suited to this class than any other. You may say that she took to this subject like a Duck to Water. She had already learned all there was to learn from all of Dumbledore's collected texts; and there were enough to fill a small sized Chest. She was now studying some Journals of unknown Origins that were passed down to their previous owner – her Birth Mother. Olivia found them curious because they did not discuss Spells or Charms or any other Magic that was created by Sirens but instead focused on the theory behind how this Magic worked. It also taught about the abilities of Sirens, which was knowledge that was invaluable to know in Olivia's position.)

Returning to the here and now, Olivia gave her farewell to Dumbledore (who was a master at Occlumency and thus able to resist her Siren allure) and left for the usual spot to meet Moody, with her Siblings doing the same and following after her.

Moody always taught Combat Magic, which was taught in the Room of Requirement as it was an adaptable environment.

Olivia was still amazed that such a room, that could alter itself to a person's needs, actually existed, but then again, this _was_ Magic so she shouldn't have been surprised. She was looking forward to using this room as a hideaway once she went to school here.

Olivia came to Hogwarts quite regularly which meant she was already familiar with the School's general layout (well, what didn't decide to move around) including a few dozen secret passages, so she reached the Seventh Floor in no time. The door to the Room was already materialised.

She turned to explain how the Room worked to her Siblings as this was their first time ever seeing it: "This is the Room of Requirement. The Hogwarts Elves call it the Come and Go Room because it can appear and disappear at will. The Room is magical and can become any kind of Room that you want, with the one condition that the Room has to be mainly indoors. Plus there is a limit to how large the Room can be. To summon the Room you need to pace back and forth 3 times in front of the Wall here, while thinking of what Room you need. You can find this spot by looking for this Tapestry." She indicated the Tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy teaching Trolls how to dance Ballet.

The other Children now stared at the Room with awe.

"Yeah, pretty cool, huh? Dumbledore says not to abuse the Room and to try and keep the Room's existence a secret, or we'll have the entire School trying to use it for stupid things like a place to kiss. Also, a new Room can't be summoned if someone is already using it. If you wish to, you can also hide the door so no one can find you unless they know about the Room."

With that, she opened the door and stepped inside, Moody didn't like to be kept waiting. Immediately, her eyes darted around the Room, examining every nook and cranny and preparing for some kind of ambush. Today the Room they were using was just a large empty stone Hall. The Hall looked like it was part of some old ruined Castle as there were 2 sets of pillars that lead towards the far Wall of the Hall, all of them were worn and cracked and some of them had even partially crumbled. Part of the ceiling of the Hall had also crumbed away, revealing a bright blue sky and allowing some sunlight to shine into the dark and cold ruin.

Olivia casted a Lumos charm wandlessly in her left hand, creating a shining ball of white light the same size as a large marble, which consistently hovered inches away from the palm of her hand, in order to view her surroundings better. That's when she noticed Moody standing in the middle of the Hall with his back to her. She indicated to her Siblings, who just entered the Room, to stand to the side by the doorway so they wouldn't get in the way, and started walking over to Moody.

As she walked, she started getting a weird feeling in her gut, which (to her) was a signal that something wasn't right.

Moody was the most paranoid individual Olivia had ever known. With the help of his special Eye, Moody was always watching what was happening around him. If anyone ever approached him, friend or foe, he'd shove his Wand in their face and demand them to prove their identity. He'd also cast a finite charm on you just to make sure he wasn't being deceived by any illusions. However, as Olivia approached, Moody had yet to even acknowledge her presence, let alone turn around to face her.

Olivia mentally put herself on edge, keeping an eye on her surroundings like Moody always did. If she even thought that something had moved in the corner of her vision, she'd have her Wand out and ready, but up until that point she'd keep it in her invisible Wand holster. That way, if she was being watched, they'd believe that Olivia was unaware that anything was wrong, giving Olivia the element of surprise. It would also mean that Olivia wouldn't get instantly disarmed if her opponents got the jump on her.

When she reached Moody, he still hadn't turned around to greet her in his special way. Slowly, she reached out to tap him on his shoulder, when he spun around in the blink of an eye, Wand out and pointing at her. Olivia jumped a foot in the air.

"MERLIN!" she cried.

After taking a few moments to calm her erratic heartbeat, she turned back to Moody.

"You scared the life out of me Moody! I thought I was gonna…"

Olivia trailed off as she noticed that Moody was shimmering slightly, and he hadn't moved since turning around and pointing his Wand at her. He hadn't even blinked.

' _It's an Illusion!'_

Acting quickly, Olivia overcharged the Lumos in her hand with Magic, recreating the effect of a Muggle Flashbang. She then dived behind the nearest pillar in time for 3 different curses to simultaneously impact where she was just standing.

She flicked her wrist to unsheathe her Wand and started casting spells to increase the amount of cover she had. She blasted the very tall pillar she was hiding behind until it was a quarter of the height it was before, but the large chunks of rock that she produced made ample additional cover for herself thanks to her smaller stature.

She also turned and cast a special Siren spell at the area around her Siblings. The spell was a mixture of a shielding spell and a ward as it cast a static protective bubble around whatever the caster wanted. The shield was made of Water, but it contained some unknown Magical energy which it drew in from its surroundings. While it wasn't strong enough to protect against sustained spell-fire, it was enough to protect the Children and give enough time for Olivia to intervene. The spell couldn't be dispelled with any regular counter curses that would be used on a normal shield. There was a much stronger version of the same spell which required the use of many Water Runes (the more Runes, the stronger the spell) but Olivia clearly didn't have time for that, she was now busy trying to defend herself against the attackers.

Olivia guessed that her opponents were either disillusioned or under Invisibility Cloaks. She decided to try something to narrow the possibilities down.

" _Accio Invisibility Cloaks_ "

When nothing came to her, she had her answer. That was when curses started being rained down on her position. She had to figure out some kind of strategy. She could cast finite in order to dispel the Disillusionment Charms but she needed to figure out the general locations of each attacker. She couldn't summon the people themselves because she needed to be able to picture what she was summoning (if she didn't have a specific name for the object being summoned like Invisibility Cloaks) and picturing a bunch of near invisible people wouldn't cut it. If she could see them, that would make the Charm infinitely easier to cast. She also had no idea at this point on their numbers. There could be as little as 3 or as many as a whole damn Army in here, and she wouldn't know.

If she allowed more light into the Hall, she'd be able to spot the shimmering patterns of people moving who were disillusioned. She did a quick survey around the Room and spotted many unlit torches around the Room, as well as a large old oil lamp that was suspended over the middle of the Hall that could provide the main source of light for the Hall.

She was just about to light it, when she thought of another plan which was a little crazy but could actually work out in her favour.

" _Diffindo_ "

Olivia severed two of the chains that were suspending the oil lamp above them, spilling a large amount of oil onto the floor of the Hall. Before anyone could react, Olivia lit the oil on fire.

Within seconds, the main part of the Hall was on fire. Olivia could spot 2 people were on fire and another 3 shimmering figures were standing watching in horror.

" _Accio burning people_ "

She pulled the 2 people, who were trying to put themselves out, out of the range of the fire and quickly dumped the equivalent of 20 buckets worth of Holy Water on them which also dispelled the Disillusionment Charm (it wasn't really Holy Water, that was just what it was called in the Siren spellbook she read – the Water worked like a finite Charm and dispelled most Magical effects), before tying them up and stunning them.

2 down, 3 to go.

By now, the 3 who were still conscious were now hiding behind pillars on the other side of the Hall from her, but she didn't know which ones.

Olivia spotted that one of the pillars on the other side of the Hall from her had mostly crumbled away, and the bits of rubble were all piled up around the base. She transfigured the rubble into a small pack of hungry Wolves. Immediately they began looking for their next meal. Since Olivia was blocked from them by fire, they started using their noses and trying to find the 3 disillusioned people in the Hall with her.

Soon, one of the Wolves lunged at a shimmering figure, who blasted the Wolf into the far Wall in response. Olivia gave them similar treatment to the last two figures: dump Holy Water, summon them, tie them up, stun them.

3 down, 2 left.

The rest of the pack of Wolves were either changed back to rocks or were lying in pieces across the floor. The fire had now died out as the last of the oil burned up, and the barrage of spell-fire was starting again, to stop her from even peeking out of her position.

Olivia conjured a hand-held Mirror and a long Stick and stuck the two together with a Sticking Charm. She then carefully held the Mirror out to see where the spell-fire was coming from. Since she only saw two places that the spells were coming from, she confirmed that there were only 2 attackers left.

While looking at the Mirror, another stupid plan sprung up in her head. If she decided to do it, she'd only have one shot.

Olivia conjured a full-body sized Mirror and a handle and stuck the two together. Taking a deep breath to steel herself, Olivia jumped out of cover and ran at the disillusioned figures, with the large Mirror pointed towards them. As she hoped, the spells that were made of Magical Energy were reflected back at the casters. She cast finite at the area to the right, where she saw spells coming from. A very surprised stranger was revealed.

" _Incarcerous. Stupefy."_

Another one down for the count, which left one more to deal with.

However, before Olivia could do anything to the last man (or woman) standing, a Disarming Charm struck her outstretched hand, making her lose her Wand. The disillusioned figure summoned the flying Wand before Olivia was able to. Now thinking that Olivia was helpless, the figure left cover and started advancing on her position. Olivia couldn't reach her back-up Wand because she was holding the Mirror with her left hand, and the only way to release the Wand once in the Holster was to activate the spring mechanism – it was part of the design in order to prevent the Wand getting summoned.

She couldn't put the Mirror down because if they noticed, they could vanish it and she'd be a sitting Duck, but while she was holding it – skin to object, it couldn't be vanished as she was not an inanimate object nor a product of Transfiguration (which includes conjured objects) and the Vanishing Charm wouldn't be able to discern between the two different entities (the Mirror and her) if they were touching. ( **AN: I changed the details of the Vanishing Charm slightly, because in canon it could be used on anything, and what's to stop you vanishing a whole person? Shouldn't that make the spell as bad as the Killing Curse? Or at the very least, make it a dark spell… I made it so objects couldn't be vanished if the object was touching something alive and not made or changed by Transfiguration or conjured.)**

This left her with only one course of action... well, that was what she thought... It did not occur to her to simply switch the Mirror into her other hand to summon her Back-up Wand (nobody is perfect!).

Quietly, she bided her time, waiting for the right moment to strike.

When the figure was finally within reach, they dispelled the Disillusionment Charm.

"Game's up, you lost." Spoke a Male voice. This was when Olivia struck.

She pushed the Mirror into her opponent, which he batted away on reflex, only to be on the receiving end of a Mirror on a Stick being smashed into their crotch. Hard.

Olivia then whipped out her back-up Wand and stunned her last opponent.

She was about to go and retrieve the practice Wand that she lost before she saw a stunner being sent at her, which met her Mirror on a Stick as she swung it like a Baseball bat and hit it with the Mirror to deflect it. Another 2 stunners were sent her way and she managed to hit one of them, while dodging the second… and landing in the path of the third that she didn't see.

* * *

When she regained consciousness she was met with the sight of 4 smiling faces, 3 of which were still wet. She could also see a fifth one to the side giving her a dirty look as he cradled his privates. Last but not least, she saw the horribly scarred face of Alastor Moody.

"Silly girl, you managed to take down 5 Men, all of whom are fresh graduates from Auror training, yet you lost your head right at the end! Remember, **CONSTANT VIGILENCE!** You cannot afford to ever relax! Just because you've taken down the last member of the enemy does not mean that reinforcements haven't arrived to assist their comrades. You should have done exactly what you did at the beginning and made for cover, or show that you're a Witch and made cover for yourself! **CONSTANT VIGILENCE!** "

Then Moody turned around and left, but not before looking at the shield still surrounding Olivia's Siblings for a short moment.

"Wow, that was some fight! When one of the senior Aurors says he needs some volunteers to teach a little girl a lesson, I didn't expect this…" One of the soaking wet men said.

"Tell me about it, getting my nuts smashed in by a pre-teen wasn't how I thought I'd spend the day," spoke the man still nursing his injury… no, he wasn't nursing it like that, mind out of the gutter people.

Olivia had the decency to look sheepish.

"I'm really sorry about that, I was just caught up in the moment."

All 5 men stiffened while Olivia spoke, which reminded her why she couldn't talk for a long time with them.

"It's alright, but I'll need a couple days to recover. I'm more concerned for my pride," the wounded man replied once he came out of his dazed state.

"Yeah, me and Mac will also need new Uniforms since these ones are burned, at least they protected us pretty well." ( **AN: Google "Auror's Tale" and look at the first image that comes up on the 'Images' tab – the one with the trench coat. That's badass.)** spoke another soaking wet Auror.

"Those spells were something else! I never expected someone who hasn't even started going to Hogwarts yet to be able to do that, but there's always room for improvement. Oh, by the way, what Water spells did you use? Drying Charms don't seem to work for some reason…" spoke the last wet Auror.

Olivia was also reminded that she used Siren Magic.

"Errr… the Water was charmed to nullify Magic Charms…"

"Hmm, never heard of Water that could do that before…" spoke the Auror who had been quiet up until this point, once he recovered from the allure.

Olivia responded by conjuring 3 towels and offering them along with her apologies.

* * *

After talking with the Aurors for a little bit longer, they told her that they needed to report in soon and bid her Siblings and her goodbye. She then released the younger Children from the protective spell they were under, and they all started talking to her about her performance while they walked back to Dumbledore's office. It seemed today was a lesson on what she needed to remember to do when in battle.

"Ah back so soon Children? Did you have fun?"

The 4 younger Children started trying to retell Olivia's battle with different levels of exaggeration.

"She was awesome! Olivia noticed in no time that she was about to get attacked," James said

"She released an explosion that would have blown people who were standing nearby to pieces! Without a Wand too!" spoke Arlene.

"Before we could see again, she dived behind cover," Violet calmly stated.

"And then she started setting people on fire! And then she tied them up! And then she started beating the Men and hitting them in their weak spot with a Stick! But then she was tricked and she fell asleep." Shouted Adam.

Dumbledore chuckled at their story, already having received a less exaggerated and slightly more detailed rundown from Moody himself when he passed through to use the Floo. Although he never admitted it, Dumbledore could tell that Moody was pleased at Olivia's performance, he just showed it in his own way.

"Well, that does sound exciting doesn't it? Anyway, that's the end of your schedule today Olivia, I think it's time for you all to return Home before Lily comes here and takes Hogwarts apart, brick by brick, until she finds you. Olivia, there will be no training tomorrow, I'm not cruel enough to make you work on your 11th Birthday." Olivia became excited as she was reminded that she was only one day away from her Birthday.

"Also, you do not need to worry about sending us a reply to your Hogwarts letter, you're place with us is secured already."

"Thank you so much Grandpa, will you be around on my Birthday?" she asked.

"Hmm, I have some business that I need to attend to tomorrow…" Olivia looked so depressed, her eyes actually looked like they lost a little of their glow, "but I can make enough time in my schedule to drop in for a bit." and then it returned full force as Olivia went back to being excited.

Olivia would have stayed to continue chatting with Dumbledore, but they needed to get back Home before Mount Lily erupted and poor Sirius was consumed by her Wrath.

As the Children came out of the Floo, one by one, they stepped right into Lily's tight embrace (like a fish swimming into a fisherman's net) as she greeted them with a desperate family hug (even Olivia, who was shot out of the floo and straight into the hug) while Sirius could be found further away on the floor, looking like he just had his life choked out of him.

"Oh my babies! Are any of you hurt? Do you need anything? Do you feel ill?" lots of questions asking about their health came out of Lily's mouth as her motherly embrace slowly tightened, and in a 5 person hug (not including Lily who entrapped them) there wasn't much space available.

"Mum… need… air…" wheezed Arlene.

"Can't… breathe…" James whispered.

Lily realised what she was doing and released her Children, who all collapsed to the floor and started gulping in air. When they recovered (many minutes later), Olivia was the first to jump up from the floor.

"Mum, can we go to Diagon Alley to get my supplies? I really want to get them soon!" once again, Olivia was bouncing on the spot in excitement.

"Of course we can sweetie! Do you want to go now?"

"Give me a minute, I need to clean and change, I'm all sweaty."

"Ok, I'll be waiting here while you go do what you need to."

Olivia sprinted to her Room and stripped off her clothes. As she went to jump into the shower, she dropped the clothes into the laundry basket outside the Bathroom so the Elves could wash them when they had time.

After a quick 20 minutes in the shower (Girls have a lot to do in there) she went back into her Room, where she chose what to wear for the rest of the day.

After a couple minutes of deciding (10 minutes), she finally settled on what she wanted to wear. She wore a white mini-dress with a dark cropped denim jacket on top. The sleeves on the jacket were rolled up to her elbows. On her feet she wore a Black pair of High-Top Converses. After strapping her Watch, her Wand-Holsters (with her Wands) and her favourite bracelet (which looked like a thin chord of brown leather - with a black stripe running on it – wrapped around her wrist several times and the ends were connected by a neat little metal clip), she was ready to go.

Make-up was unnecessary for her, but she sprayed a small amount of perfume on herself so she'd smell something pleasant. Diagon Alley tended to smell very weird (a mixture of potion ingredients, animals, Witches and Wizards who don't wash properly and just use cleaning charms – they don't clean everything), in addition to the fact that at this time of year there were lots of families at the Alley retrieving School Supplies so the place smelled sweaty.

The family travelled to the Alley the Muggle way – by Car – because they didn't want to risk travelling via an unsecure Floo connection, which was a real issue when they connected to public Floos instead of private ones. Fortunately, the Alley wasn't that far away from their House.

At around mid-day, the Black family walked into the Leaky Cauldron. The place was as dark and dingy as they remembered it to be.

The family managed to navigate their way, through the place and in-between the savoury-looking patrons scattered around, to the back of the establishment with minimal hassle. The only trouble they encountered being the fact that Olivia was being stared at by some dirty men and even a few women, but she was also being watched by people who recognised who she was and started whispering to each other about her.

You see, on the night that Voldemort 'perished', the news managed to leak out, which caused most of the Wizarding World to cry in joy and celebrate for the next week. Samhain (or Halloween) was from then-on marked as an unofficial Wizarding Holiday (not that it wasn't already… but now it's celebrated for another reason). However, some level of damage control needed to be enacted, which was exactly what Dumbledore did.

When he informed the Ministry (which was something he was required to do for an event of this magnitude) he pretended that he did not know as many details about Voldemort's downfall as he actually did. He told them what Voldemort was trying to accomplish that night (He was trying to simultaneously end both the Potter line and the Longbottom line) and that something happened which made him fail, but the Ministry did not know for certain if Voldemort visited the Potters, or if he visited the Longbottoms because no remains, aside from his robes which were turned in to the Ministry (Dumbledore did this – even though he was heavily reprimanded for tampering with a crime scene, but not much was done against him as people were too happy about Voldemort's disappearance and Dumbledore's titles helped him a lot to avoid punishment), no evidence apart from damage to the surrounding property was found at either site, the Death-Eaters who would have known of the Dark Lord's plans were missing – presumed dead and the Longbottoms bar little Neville were in a coma.

When the Longbottoms eventually awoke from their coma 3 years later, they had no recollection of what happened that night, only that they were attacked and they defended themselves as best as they could. Who they were fighting was blurry in their memories, and when they thought all hope was lost, they retreated to Neville's Room to try to protect him. Then they remember a bright flash of Light Blue light and then nothing.

No-one was officially credited with taking down Voldemort that night, but unofficial rumours started circling among the Wizarding public and Olivia and Neville unofficially became 'the-Children-who-Survived' in whispers. Olivia personally found the name to be ridiculous. Nowadays, if people recognised them for who they were, they'd start whispering to each other while watching them. Some looked kindly at them, others gave them dark looks, and the rest (in Olivia's case) just stared at them, with a few even leering. It was slightly unnerving to Olivia but there was nothing she could do about it, even she did not remember the night in question as she was barely a year old, and you try remembering something you did when you were 1 year old. Unless you had a _very_ good memory, it's pretty damn hard.

Plus she was slowly learning to ignore most of the stares that she received; after all, as she grew older her Siren traits would become more and more pronounced, and the attention she'd receive as a result will only get more troublesome.

Once the Black family reached the plain wall in the backyard of the establishment, Sirius pulled his Wand out and tapped a series of bricks in the Wall in an anti-clockwise order. After the last brick, the Wall started to rumble as the bricks started moving. Bricks were folding back on each other until a doorway was formed, and on the other side of the doorway was Diagon Alley, just as busy as they expected.

First the family went to Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions, to get Olivia the Uniform that she needed. Since the family was a little too large to go around together, Sirius took the boys to go look at "Cooler stuff" as Adam eloquently phrased it.

The 4 females of the Black family entered the store, where another prospective first year was getting their measurements taken, so the family began to wait patiently while browsing some of the Robes and other clothes on display to pass the time. It may have been Olivia's imagination, but she thought that Lily seemed to recognise the Mother of the other family, and was getting excited. She looked just about ready to go and say hi to her when she was interrupted.

"Well what have we here? It seems the Mudblood who thinks she is worthy of Pureblood status has decided to show her face, and she brought some of the litter she produced and raised with her." A repulsively smooth voice drawled. Just listening to the voice made you feel like you needed to clean yourself.

Lily's eyes narrowed as she knew who the voice belonged to. There were only a few people in the Wizarding World who had a voice like that.

"Malfoy. What a truly unpleasant surprise. The World becomes such a brighter place when you grace us with your presence… or is all that light actually coming from the Sun that you so richly believe is shining out of your posterior?" Olivia, Arlene and Violet all fought very hard to contain their amusement, while Lily's face was a sugary sweet mask of faux politeness. Malfoy, however, was less than pleased that Lily Black (a Mudblood of all people) had the nerve to insult him, and phrase it formally too. This, combined with the quietly giggling children next to the Mudblood, resulted in Malfoy temporarily loosing his composure.

"If we had a proper Minister, you and all the other filth that plague the Wizarding World would be stripped of Magic and sent back to your rightful place; wallowing in the mud with those mindless and untalented Muggles. Your Children here, on the other hand, would only be allowed to remain in the Wizarding World if they behaved themselves and knew where their rightful place was; beneath us, lying on their backs and ready to service their natural superiors."

The whole of the store was silent after this proclamation. Even the staff and the family, who were being attended to, had stopped dead; they couldn't help but listen to the loud interaction between the 2 adults with completely opposite views and attitudes.

Lily herself had lost some of her own composure. Her beautiful face was distorted with rage, disgust and utter loathing. It was taking all of her willpower not to pull out her Wand and wipe that smug, satisfied grin off the face of the slimy, arrogant, overweening, condescending, snobbish, snooty, self-obsessed… Lily could not find an insulting name that would do justice to this piece of trash before her. Using a less insulting word than he deserved would actually be an insult to the word itself, as well as all those who were associated with it – she personally thought that it was a disgrace to be considered on the same level as this…

Lily's thoughts were interrupted as each of her Children stepped forward, seemingly calm and collected.

After staring at the Lord before them, Violet – usually the shy and timid Child of the family – chose to speak first.

"Why don't you stop dreaming all the time and pay attention to the real world? In reality, you and your fellows who share your views are all a bunch of bigoted, egotistic pigs who have deluded themselves into thinking that they are superior to others in every way. Hmm… maybe that's because they need to make up for the fact that they are far from superior in another department." She finished by indicating downwards with her head and taking a step back to stand beside her mother.

Arlene was the next person to have a go at the Reddening elder Malfoy.

"You say that you are naturally superior to us, but shouldn't superior beings already know that they need to check their facts properly? Well, the fact is,the number of... people... who share your beliefs are slowly dying out. In modern times, there are only so many truly 'Pure' families left in the Wizarding World for you to marry and spawn with, in order to continue the 'tradition'." Here Arlene made quote marks in the air with both her hands.

"Just over a century ago, before the whole Pureblood ideology became important, there were tens of dozens of families who you would consider 'Pure'. However, some misled individual decided that they needed to enforce their belief that Purebloods should not associate with Muggleborns or even Muggles, and created the trend of having these old and 'Pure' families marry each other and produce Children to continue the line. This was fine for a while, until some started getting greedy for more power. This meant that entire family lines started getting absorbed into other families through marriages and some families absorbed multiple other families. Now we've come to the situation we have today.

"Every 'Pure' family that is still active and not absorbed is related to each other in some way. Even we are related! To continue the tradition of keeping the blood of the family 'Pure' is to encourage inbreeding, which will not make your family stronger in the future. Quite the opposite in fact! At least there are some old families that are still active and don't blindly follow the 'Pure' ideology.

"Also, food for thought, don't you realise that it is highly likely that your 'Pure' family originated with a Muggleborn? There isn't any evidence to suggest that Purebloods are an entirely different race to Muggles. You both eat, you both drink, you both sleep, you both breathe, you both bleed... and you both _die_." The grin she gave as she finished this sentence was truly demonic. If Satan saw it, he'd be proud.

"While you can strip the ability to _use_ Magic from people, you can't _take_ Magic from them – no-one even knows if there are any dark rituals that do this; so how can Muggleborns have the ability to use Magic? The answer is the same way your ancestors did long ago, they were _born_ with it." She finished by giving Malfoy a look of disgust, and then taking a step back as well.

Finally, Olivia took her turn to speak at the elder Malfoy. It was unlikely that anyone here could speak _with_ him... or that he'd take on what they said...

She spent a short moment examining the Weasley-Red face of the Head of the Most Ancient and Noble House of Malfoy (A Most Ancient and Noble House was a rank lower in House Hierarchy than a Most Ancient and Most Noble House – which the Blacks and the Potters were. The gap between different ranks in the hierarchy was certainly noticeable to those who were well informed in the Wizarding World. The reason why the Malfoys were so high up in Pureblood and Social circles and have significantly more power than usual for a Most Ancient and Noble House is due to possessing a very large amount of Wealth nearing the Wealth of a Most Ancient and Most Noble House).

Olivia had to choose her words carefully because once she started talking she couldn't keep going for long. The longer she talked in public, the increased risk of people noticing something was up because of her allure, but for the purposes of attempting to put the Malfoy man back in his place, she'd allow herself to talk for longer than she normally would. She took a quick breath to keep herself calm, before she opened her mouth.

"Allow me to ask you a question, a rhetorical one, so you don't need to use valuable brain cells in order to think of an answer. I also highly doubt you would even be able to answer my question, since your answer to any problem is to throw money at it until it goes away." Despite the delayed reaction as he took time to recover from the allure, Olivia smiled with joy on the inside when she eventually saw the elder Malfoy slowly start to turn purple.

"So my question: Where are all the other people who are 'superior' to us, and share your views on the Wizarding World? The answer… is Azkaban. It seems that your particular viewpoint was shared by some very avid followers of a certain Dark Lord who terrorized the Wizarding World not too long ago. I was but a baby at the time, but when the Dark Lord fell, didn't many Death-Eaters turn themselves in hoping that they could avoid all punishment and return to society without the fear of getting arrested if they were found to be Death-Eaters?

"But their plan backfired. Why did this happen? It's because the Ministry and the Wizengamot weren't as incompetent as they believed. Many of your friends, who turned themselves in, tried using the same excuse – that they were under the Imperius Curse and they didn't mean to do all the things that they did. However, the excuse was too easy to abuse in the Courtroom if it was acknowledged as a legitimate excuse to be pardoned. So, in a rare display of unity, the majority of the Wizengamot passed a law saying that the Imperius Defence would only be accepted as a legitimate reason to be issued a pardon for all convicted crimes, if it was freely admitted under Veritaserum.

"Their plan had failed spectacularly, and they were arrested. It's kinda funny how, by trying to avoid arrest, they made it much easier for the DMLE to arrest them. The DMLE now had, in their possession, many arrested Death-Eaters. They were also given permission, just this once, to interrogate them with the use of Veritaserum without consent, in order to find their comrades. The Minister of the time was the one who gave this permission, in order to see justice done swiftly, but once all the arrests were made he voluntarily stepped down from his position to make up for bending the rules. Soon the trials started which decided who would be kissed by Dementors, who would be sent through the Veil and who would be carted off to Azkaban. Unfortunately for us... lesser beings," Olivia bowed mockingly at this point.

"There were a few Death-Eaters who were rumoured to have managed to slip through the net and evade punishment…" Olivia paused for effect as she gave Malfoy an intense stare, indicating that she knew that he was one of these people. When Malfoy recovered and noticed this, his dazed, purple face went pale.

"It seems they found a loophole in the laws at the last minute that said that Veritaserum was forbidden to be administered to prisoners if they were allergic to one of the ingredients found in the potion. All of a sudden, the very few Death-Eaters who had yet to be tried in front of the Wizengamot were claiming to be allergic to different ingredients used to brew the potion. Forced to continue the trials without Veritaserum, the remaining slimy individuals were able to manipulate their way through the many loopholes in the laws and regulations of the Ministry to negate any evidence that accused them of being guilty.

"As a result, these people eventually had to be set free as there was no evidence left that could prove their guilt; however since then the Ministry has managed to change the laws, so the same method for escaping punishment will not be possible again. In addition, there are now simple harmless tests to prove if you are indeed allergic to one of the ingredients in Veritaserum. Now that the courtroom is a different place, how do you think those same people would be able to get themselves out of trouble if they so happened to find themselves in custody again for things such as hexing the last member of a Most Ancient and Most Noble House? Or how about hexing the family members of _another_ Most Ancient and Most Noble House? I personally think that those are trick questions, it is very unlikely that they'd be able to pull off the same trick again, don't you agree _Lord_ Malfoy?" What Olivia said wasn't insulting, but it indicated that she had dirt on the Lord which she could use whenever she wished. She basically told Malfoy that he couldn't touch her or her Family, and she also sent him a clear message:

Watch your Ass. Or you may find it in Azkaban.

Now as pale as a ghost, Malfoy stopped reaching for his Wand and turned away from the 3 Children. He needed to get away from them before they tried anything that would further ruin his public reputation; especially the Potter Girl. It was also then that he finally realised that he was one of the only Males in the nearby vicinity and his words may have caused all of the females who heard him to take offence, hence why every person he saw was glaring at him and mentally mutilating him.

"Come Draco, I don't want to spend another moment in the presence of _them_."

It was only now that everyone noticed the presence of a boy, another prospective first year, who looked like a mini clone of Lucius Malfoy. Instead of seeing him immediately leaving to follow his Father, or glaring at the Black family, he was staring rather intensely at Olivia and ignoring everything else.

Although Olivia had found herself on the receiving end of many different kinds of stares, she wasn't quite sure what to make of this one that she was receiving from the younger Malfoy. It made her feel like she needed to wear more clothes, as well as lock herself away somewhere secret.

" _Is he_ _ **still**_ _staring? I stopped talking ages ago!_ " Olivia thought to herself.

"Draco! Come!" came the voice of the elder Malfoy, which seemed to break the spell that the younger Malfoy was under.

He smiled what he thought was a charming smile (which came across as another perverted leer – Olivia had received enough of _those_ to know what _they_ meant) and gave her a wink before turning and leaving the store.

Olivia had a very bad feeling that this was not the last she'd see of either of the Malfoys. Not by a long shot. Why did life insist on being so cruel to her?

Next thing Olivia knew, she was swept up in a bone-breaking hug, along with Arlene and Violet, by Lily. The way that she was hugging them was very similar to the way a small Child would hug their favourite cuddly toy for comfort.

"Oh my babies, I'm so proud of you! I had no idea you knew so much about how the Wizarding World works! It makes me so happy to know that you've been learning in-between our lessons! I could never have hoped to have said anything that would have had the same effect on that… that… ponce!" Lily had calmed down enough from her temper flare (she was no longer searching for the worst insulting word ever uttered). However instead she was going into loving-Mother Overdrive and if they didn't act soon, Olivia and her sisters would be crushed into dust. Lily was babbling so much that none of their attempts to verbally get her attention worked. The situation was looking dire for the 3 ensnared Children, so Olivia ended up doing the last thing that she could think of in desperation, Olivia started to sing quietly in order to daze Lily enough to escape her clutches.

" _I like the way your sparkling earrings lay  
against your skin it's so brown  
and I wanna sleep with you  
in the desert tonight  
with a billion stars all around  
'cause I gotta peaceful easy feeling  
and I know you won't let me down  
'cause I'm al~ready standing on the ground  
_

 _And I found out a long time ago  
what a woman can do to your soul  
Ah but she can't take you anyway  
You don't already know how to go  
and I gotta peaceful easy feeling  
and I know you won't let me down  
'cause I'm al~ready standing on the ground  
_

 _I get this feeling I may know you  
as a lover and a friend  
but this voice keeps whispering  
in my other ear, tells me  
I may never see you again  
'cause I get a peaceful, easy feeling  
and I know you won't let me down  
'cause I'm al~ready standing…  
I'm al~ready standing...  
Yes I'm al~ready standing…  
on the ground  
oooo, oooo…"_

( **AN: Song – Peaceful Easy Feeling by Eagles** )

Olivia did not mean to sing for so long, but once she started, she really got into the song and ended up singing it till the end. At least her plan worked and even Lily was stuck in a dazed trance which allowed her enough time to wriggle out of her grasp, and place her sisters out of reach too (they were also affected by her song) while she sang.

When she stopped, it still took them all a minute to recover and Olivia spent that whole minute worried that Lily would be mad at her for using her powers on her. The first to recover was Violet and Arlene.

"Wow, you sounded amazing Olivia!" praised Violet.

"Yeah, what Vi said! That was wicked!" Arlene agreed.

Next to recover was Lily. She looked a little confused as to why Olivia started singing until she remembered what she was doing before the singing started. At least Lily had the decency to look apologetic as she checked if they were ok.

"Olivia, your singing was beautiful, just like you." admired Lily.

Olivia blushed heavily at all the complements she was getting. She was about to go and attribute it to her developing Siren abilities when a squeal came from the back of the store. They'd forgotten all about the other people who were with them. Olivia was quietly relieved that she didn't say what she was planning to say.

"Oh Merlin! She has the voice of an Angel!" cried an older lady who Olivia assumed was Madam Malkin herself.

"If I had a voice like that, I think I'd sing all the time!" spoke the Mother of the other family in the store.

The rest of the time the family was in the store was spent with Lily chatting to the Mother of the other family (turns out that they knew each other from Hogwarts... they were actually best friends for years and spent most of their time at Hogwarts together), Violet chatting with the younger daughter (they were both the same age), Arlene had gone off to browse the store some more and Olivia was being measured by another member of staff (a Muggleborn Witch), who was still praising her singing talents. They had already purchased Ties and Shoes for Olivia and she already had plenty of suitable pairs of Tights so all she needed was all the Uniform items that required her measurements.

"If you decided to make your career in Music, I'm sure that you would become famous in no time at all!" was one of the few things she said as Olivia kept as still as possible to be accurately measured.

It was also while she was getting measured that she felt another intense stare being directed at her person. As she was taught by Moody, Olivia's eyes started scanning all over (without moving her head) to identify the source of the stare.

While the member of staff was looking at her, her gaze wasn't intense enough, so Olivia ruled her out and moved on. The Mothers of both families looked to be so engrossed in their conversation that she knew neither of them were the source of the stare, plus she still felt it as she saw them chatting away and neither were looking in her direction. The same could be said with Violet and her new friend. Arlene was nowhere in sight and Madam Malkin was in the back of the store preparing items of Uniform for the last person she hadn't checked in the store.

When Olivia turned her eyes to the person in question, the eldest daughter of the family whose name she hadn't found out yet, she felt the stare cut off. She found the Girl, who was going to become her Year-mate at Hogwarts and possibly even one of her Classmates, intently staring out the Window and occasionally glancing around the store. This wouldn't be a point of importance to Olivia, if the Girl wasn't ever so slightly overacting in her ruse. She would stare at one spot out of the Window a little too intently, and she glanced at the store around her a little too regularly, while also looking in every possible direction except hers.

The Girl had golden hair that fell a little ways past her shoulder and was worn in beachy waves which did not look too different from her own wavy hair (except the Girl's hair looked more tamed. Olivia's own hair – thanks to the Potter-Siren hair she inherited - had a slightly more tousled look which gave her hair more volume; like a model that just got out of bed in a picture perfect world, the look that most photographers spent hours trying to recreate at a photo shoot).

If Olivia was asked, she'd admit that the Girl was quite the looker and would grow up to be a true beauty, but what stood out the most to Olivia was that she had the most captivating Ice Blue eyes she had ever seen. It seemed that vividly glowing eyes was a trait shared among beautiful females in the Wizarding World. The resemblance to her Mother was uncanny, except for the fact that her Mother seemed to have regular Blue eyes. Her younger sister seemed to be the odd one out, with Chocolate Brown hair and Hazel eyes which she must have inherited from her Father, but she still strongly resembled her Mother and Sister in facial features.

Olivia was told a few times that people could get lost staring at her own vibrant Sea Green eyes, but now she had a bit of an idea on what these people meant as she stared at this Girl.

Eventually, Olivia realised that she was now the one staring at someone intensely from across the Room, and averted her gaze to stare at something else as she waited for the member of staff to finish her job. Not soon after she turned her gaze away from the Girl, Olivia felt the intense stare return in full force. She may have been imagining it, but she thought she could detect traces of emotion through the stare. Feelings such as admiration, curiosity, determination and… possessiveness? She didn't know what to think...

She was also confused how she could sense these feeling through someone's gaze alone. Olivia made a mental note to do some more research on other possible Siren abilities when she had the time.

"Ok Angel, you can drop your arms now." Smiled the staff member, having taken to calling her Angel because of her voice. "Please wait here while I give Madam Malkin your measurements. Your Uniform should be done in about 15 minutes. Of course… you could always sing a song to pass the time…" The Witch, not very subtly, suggested.

" _I could do that, but then my Robes would never get made…_ " Olivia thought.

When Olivia shook her head slightly at the lady's suggestion, she looked momentarily disappointed, but went to do her job with a smile nevertheless.

Olivia felt a little bad, and wished she could sing without the allure disabling everyone else's thought processes. Despite its obvious effect on people, her singing seemed to bring real joy to people.

To pass the time, Olivia started humming some of her favourite songs while she idly browsed the selection of clothes on display around the store. She was halfway through humming the chorus of Bon Jovi - Livin' on a Prayer when she realised the store was oddly devoid of all noise except her humming, it also seemed to her as if the rest of the world was now painted in black, white and grey, with her being the only colour she could see.

She turned around and found the store to be completely empty.

Olivia felt as if someone took a bucket of ice cold water and poured it onto her head so her skin froze from head to toe. She was starting to panic and was about to try to find everyone when she saw a split-second flash of menacing red eyes glaring at her.

By the time she blinked, the whole world was back in colour again, and almost all the occupants of the store were staring at her worriedly or strangely.

"Sweetie, are you alright?" asked a concerned Lily as she came over and stroked her hair.

Olivia nodded and was about to respond when Madam Malkin chose this moment to appear with both sets of Uniforms for both families. She just mouthed the words 'another vision' to Lily before going over to receive her new uniform as Lily continued to worry about Olivia's increasingly common visions.

"Alright dearies, I have both of your sets of Uniform! What name would you like me to inscribe on the labels?" she turned to face the Mother of the family who was in the store first. She was standing closer to Madam Malkin than the elder daughter who was sat by the far Window.

"Daphne Lauriel Greengrass." Said the Mother.

Madam Malkin nodded and waved her Wand over the label stitched on the inside collar of the Robes, Jumpers, Blouses and Skirts. Almost like there was an invisible quill being used, letters in gold ink were being drawn on the labels. After a few minutes, 'Daphne Lauriel Greengrass' was written in perfect golden calligraphy on the labels of all sets of clothing for the elder _Greengrass_ (Olivia finally knew their family name!) daughter.

Then Madam Malkin turned to face Olivia with a bright smile.

"And you my Angel?"

Olivia fought to hide a small grimace. She desperately hoped that the nickname didn't catch on.

"Olivia Dorea Potter" she said quickly.

In the same fashion, Olivia's own name was slowly inscribed perfectly by Magic onto all the labels on her all pieces of her Uniform.

After both families received their Clothes and paid, the two Mothers resumed their talk with each other. They were so focused on what they were talking about (none of the Children cared enough to listen in) the two families decided to just go around Diagon Alley together, while dragging their respective Mothers along with them.

Anything Olivia needed or wanted to get, she paid for herself - much to Lily's discontent. Ever since she learned about the money in her trust vault – 10,000 Galleons which refilled every year from the main Potter Vault, a mere drop in the bucket compared to the real Potter Wealth – she insisted she pay for herself. Olivia, Lily and Sirius eventually reached a compromise where Sirius and Lily would at least pay for Olivia's basic needs like food, bills etc. And anything that Olivia didn't need to keep herself alive, she paid for (Clothes, Electronic Devices, Sweets etc.) But Lily and Sirius didn't like it. They considered Olivia as one of their Children and they still insisted now and then that they pay for some things that Olivia wanted. They _wanted_ to spoil her (to the same extent as a loving parent, not to the extent of people who liked to burn their money for no reason) instead of letting her manage her own finances. Plus the Blacks were equally as wealthy as the Potters so they weren't short on funds by a long shot.

The rest of the trip to Diagon Alley passed with little incident.

Both families visited Amanuensis Quills, Slug & Jiggers Apothecary, Potage's Cauldron Shop, Flourish and Blotts, Magical Menagerie (where Daphne bought a small Half-Kneazle kitten who was adorable, Olivia could tell that Daphne thought so too but she worked hard to hide it, which Olivia didn't understand), Tiller's Trunks (where both families bought Trunks with 7 magically enhanced compartments and were registered to only open to the owner's magical signature – they just needed to touch the lock for about a second before they were recognised and the lock was magically undone – and the lock could also be pressed in to activate the in-built shrinking charm on the Trunks. To unshrink them, the owner needed to touch the Trunk and clearly speak the magical phrase _'Crescere'_. The Trunk was also charmed with permanent weight-reducing Charms so at maximum capacity, the Trunk would only weigh the same as a pebble) and Wiseacre's Wizarding Equipment.

During their travels, the group saw a large gathering of people outside the front Store Window to Quality Quidditch Supplies, all fawning over the new Nimbus Model that Olivia remembered briefly hearing about from Quidditch conversations between the Males of the Black family. Speaking of, the 3 Males in question were part of the group of people at the forefront of the large gathering who were plastering their faces against the glass of the Window. Olivia thought she even saw some drool smeared on the glass.

Now, all that was left for the two first years to buy were their Wands.

Olivia was about to lead the group towards Ollivanders when a hand grabbed her shoulder. Without meaning to, Olivia's reflexes kicked into action, and before she knew it her main Practice Wand was already pointed dangerously close to the throat of the unlucky sod who tried to get her attention.

It turns out the unlucky individual was Daphne, who had finally let her mask slip as surprise was plastered all over her usually stoic face. Olivia believed that this was the most emotion she had seen physically displayed on her face all day, which was a shame as she looked a lot more attractive when she wasn't stone-faced.

Olivia quickly removed her Wand from Daphne's throat and sheathed it.

"What is it Greengrass?" it was Wizarding etiquette to refer to someone by their Surname unless you were very familiar with them.

Once she recovered, Daphne's face returned to its set expression and she indicated to where both their Mothers were standing.

"Come on Lily, if you want a proper Wand for your daughter, you need to go to Arcane Sticks and Enchanting Stones. Instead of matching you to a pre-made Wand, they'll make a Wand right in front of you that will be the best fit for your daughter."

Lily looked hesitant to trust her long-time friend who she used to spend all her time at Hogwarts with, but hadn't seen in years. Plus the store was located in Knockturn Alley and she was hesitant to trust anything located there.

"I don't know Beth… Knockturn Alley doesn't sit well with me, plus I'm afraid of what the Children will see…"

"It'll be fine! Trust me! When have I ever let you down?"

"Well, there was that time when we were in 6th year and Me, Arlene and Alice needed someone to…"

"STOP! That was one time ok? Plus I'll never look at a feather, a Rubber Duck, a Broom or a Potato Sack the same way ever again."

Lily chuckled, those were some good times…

Sadly, Lily and Beth (short for Bethany Elizabeth Greengrass née Burke) were broken out of their reminiscing when Daphne grabbed both of them and started leading them into the Alley, with the rest following behind.

Lily was glad to find out that the shop she had heard about now and then wasn't too far into Knockturn Alley, just outside the main region of the Alley, where people you didn't want to meet under any circumstances frequented. The shop was also next door to Borgin and Burkes, which Beth's original family owned, but Beth couldn't care less if the store just went up in flames one day, with her father and his partner Borgin inside. Their Father-Daughter relationship wasn't exactly healthy…

The first thing that Olivia noticed as she stepped into the Custom Wand shop was that it was not what she was expecting.

Due to its location and the shop's exterior appearance, she was expecting some dark, mouldy store manned by an ancient mysterious man who may or may not be in a grumpy mood. Instead, the store was clean and well-lit inside. The Floor and Walls were made of Marble instead of Wood and as she walked further into the store, she kept looking back and forth between the clear glass display cases (the same kind that you find in a Jewellery Store in the Muggle World) that contained a variety of things, from piles of blocks of different Woods, to organs and other things that were once important parts of a Creature, contained in large glass jars and some were preserved in liquids which varied in colour. All in all, the place looked a lot more sterile and professional than she expected.

All of a sudden, a Man who looked to be near the same age as Lily and Beth appeared out of nowhere. He had the appearance of a Man who belonged in a boy-band, with brown hair styled in a Quiff with Blonde highlights, baby blue eyes and a chiselled jawline with a nicely trimmed 5 o'clock shadow. He wore a white V-neck long-sleeved T-shirt with sleeves that came down just past the elbow (which showed off his slightly muscular physique very nicely) and dark skinny jeans and Black Dragonhide boots.

"Welcome, my Ladies to Arcane Stones and… Beth is that you? It's so good to see you! How have you been? And who's this with you… wait… Noooo! Lily?! Damn, you're looking spectacular! Still with that dog Sirius? Why not leave him for a real man?" here he struck an overdramatic pose where he tried to flex his muscles. Both older women burst out laughing while the younger ones were left confused.

"Oh my god, Nick! I haven't seen you since we left Hogwarts! Yes, I'm still very much in love with my _Husband_." here she flashed her Black family ring. Nick just winked at her in response.

"I know, I'm just teasing! If there's anything I'm missing out on, Beth is always here to update me. Besides, I'll have you know that I've got a special lady of my own." He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"Your hand doesn't count Nick." Beth deadpanned. However she couldn't keep the snicker off her face afterwards.

"Haha very funny, but seriously, I'll have to introduce you to Jess sometime… but enough about all that. I'm sure you came for more than just to chat to yours truly here. Need a few Wands for some bright-eyed Honeys going to Hogwarts soon?" he looked towards the group of Children who were examining the many different items in the glass cases as they waited for the adults to finish talking.

"Daphne and Olivia both need their own Wands made. Of course, we came here for the best." Beth said.

Olivia and Daphne looked up from the display cases at the mention of their names.

"Yeah, well my old man left me some pretty big shoes to try to fill, but I'll try to live up to your expectations." Nick said.

"Don't worry, whatever you can manage will be leagues better than what that old coot Ollivander has at his store." replied Beth.

"Aww, you flatter me darling! So who's first?"

Olivia turned to Daphne and was about to offer to her the chance to go first, but found her standing directly behind her. Before she could react, Olivia was pushed forward. Olivia wasn't sure if it was a good or a bad thing that Daphne seemed to want to go last.

"Ah, my first subject for the day!" it did not help Olivia's confidence any when Nick gained a strange gleam in his eye and he started rubbing his hands together in anticipation.

Gently he took her hand and led her to the rear of the store-front where the shop counter was. The shop counter looked like someone took a Muggle Workbench and a plain table top counter and mixed the two together. The main part of the desk thing, which was waist height for an adult, was clearly set aside for assembling the Wand, and on the table were many strange tools that Olivia imagined were important in the process. She could also see a strange but powerful Runic Array drawn on the table surface which occasionally pulsed with Magical Energy. Then there was a second higher part of the desk thing where a stereotypical cash register sat, as well as a black square block of Wood about 2 and a half inches thick which protruded out of the desk itself. On the black square block was an indent the shape of a handprint.

"Ok sweetie, to get started, all you have to do is just place your hand on this block that you see here. The Enchantments on the store will do the rest of the work." He said.

Olivia nodded and placed her hand on the block. What was the harm in that?

At first, nothing seemed to happen, and Olivia allowed herself to relax, while still wondering why Daphne was forceful about not going first. But then she felt a very sharp object jab straight into middle of her hand, with enough force to draw blood. Olivia gave a shriek as she instinctively tried to pull her hand away from the block of Wood, but found her hand was stuck.

She kept trying to pull her hand away, momentarily forgetting that she could try using Magic, and after a minute whatever charm that was working to keep her hand in place deactivated and her hand came free suddenly, causing her to land on her rear.

When she raised her hand to look at the bleeding stab wound she had, she was surprised to find nothing there, not even a scratch.

"I'm very sorry sweetie, but a little bit of blood is needed in order for the Enchantments to figure out the perfect components for your Wand. Once they're done, a set of Blueprints will appear on my workbench and I can start getting to work. I didn't tell you about the spike because otherwise you'll be like dear Daphne over there." Olivia turned to look at Daphne who was slightly pale and hiding behind the other Children.

Did she not like needles?

"But there's no need to worry, the block has an enchantment placed on it to heal cuts once a small amount of blood is taken. That's why your hand was stuck to the block; to give it time to properly heal you."

All of a sudden, there was a _ding_ noise which sounded like an old fashioned timer.

"Ah, that will be your Blueprints finished."

He walked over to his workbench and unrolled the Blue parchment that appeared with white markings on it, just like Muggle Blueprints used to design buildings and such.

Nick stared at the parchment for a while. At first, his face looked very confused, but gradually his face grew quite excited, until he looked like he couldn't wait any longer for what he was excited about. At last, he looked up from the parchment.

"My, my… It seems you have quite the future ahead of you my dear…" was all he said, before he got to work.

First he walked over to the section of the glass display cases that contained the jars of preserved substances, where he picked up 3 jars.

He deposited them at the workbench before moving on to the section that contained precious looking jewels such as Rubies, Sapphires, Emeralds or even Diamonds. Instead of picking any of those stones up, however, he went and picked up a stone that was hidden behind all the others. The stone looked like a small regular chunk of Limestone, except it had weird markings etched on it that resembled Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics.

After placing the stone alongside the other materials already picked out, Olivia guessed that Nick needed to get the Wood he'd use for the Wand.

Instead, Nick walked straight past all the Woods in the store and went to a small, locked chest that stood by the door to the shop. He pulled out a key that hung on a silver chain worn around his neck, and unlocked the chest. The chest seemed to contain expansion charms because Nick had to get down on his hands and knees and reach his entire arm into the chest in order to pull out the thing that he needed. Eventually, he managed to get a hold of what he needed, and he pulled out a Silver Metal ball the size of a small Cannonball, but then he reached back in to rummage around the chest again. The next time he pulled his arm out of the chest, he was holding another Metal ball the same size as the previous one, but coloured Black.

He picked up both Metal Orbs carefully and took them back to the workbench, but not before slamming the lid to the chest closed with his foot. The chest magically relocked itself as soon as the chest was closed properly.

Once he placed the last of the materials on the workbench, making sure that either of the Metal Orbs didn't roll off of the table, he turned back to his customers and old friends.

"Ok, well let's start with what cores we have here. The first thing we have here is Unicorn Blood," He indicated one of the jars that was filled with a silvery liquid. "which shows that you are 'Pure of Heart' like a Unicorn. I believe my old man told me that this entire jar of Unicorn Blood was donated by a Unicorn to my Great-Great-Great-something-Grandmother when she nursed it back to health. Not sure if that's true or not but…" Nick shrugged.

"Next we have the hairs of an Abraxan. This shows that you are powerful like the breed that the hair comes from, but you are also free-spirited and have an affinity for Air Magic." He was now showing them a jar that was full of very long white hairs.

"Funny story here, it was my Grandfather who managed to collect these hairs. It happened when he was a young lad, younger than _I_ am right now. He was out doing what people do when they're in their early 20s and don't have a clue what to do in life; they drank irresponsibly and slept around. After one particularly wild night, he awoke in the same bed as the daughter of the head of the DMLE at the time. He was also quite the protective Father, so when he walked into his daughter's room to find her naked and in bed with a Man he had never seen before… hexes were flying all over the place. My Grandfather grabbed what clothes he could reach and jumped out the Window and ran for the nearby forest, while trying to put his clothes back on. He ran so far into the forest that he lost his bearings and decided to wander aimlessly for a while to clear his head as he still had a hangover but had no money on him to get a hangover remedy. Plus he felt that the fresh air would do him some good.

"As luck would have it he stumbled across a clearing in the forest, and standing on its lonesome, drinking from a stream that ran through the forest, was an Abraxan. Grandfather had no idea how it got there or why it was there, but it was truly magnificent to look at. Eventually he struck up the courage to get close to it and stroke its long shining mane of hair along its neck, but then he felt some kind of impulse, that wasn't his own, telling him to take a few handfuls of hair. It seemed that the Abraxan did not mind, and after my Grandfather was done the Abraxan gave him one last look and then took off to the skies. A bit of a weird story, but I still personally find the beginning of the story pretty funny."

Olivia was now gazing at the jar of Abraxan hair and Unicorn Blood with a bit of awe.

"Ok, the last core that we have is the hair of some creature called a Siren." Suddenly the entire Black family stiffened tremendously, which did not go unnoticed by a certain elder Daughter of the Greengrass family.

"Sirens are quite similar to Veela in beauty and their abilities. Some even call the two Races cousins. Only thing is that Sirens are quite rare in comparison to Veela, and there are very few people who know one, or even have the knowledge and ability to recognise one. This might be why I personally can't tell you much about Sirens or what having this hair means for you. I also have no idea whatsoever how my family got a hold of these hairs. They are so rare among Wand-makers that they're almost more valuable to us than Gold." He looked a little apologetic that he did not know more but the Black family were silently relieved that this was the case.

"Next is this stone. Magical stones are used as stabilisers and stabilise the flow of Magic that is passed through them. Normal Wands do not require this as they are for normal Witches and Wizards with more regular levels of power, but today we're making something truly special here. This particular stone here is an Ancient Egyptian Priest's Runestone. These Runestones were once used by the Priests to help channel Magic during rituals. The Stones were designed to also stabilise the Magic that was channelled through them, or the ritual would get overcharged with unstable Magic and fail spectacularly. Don't ask me what kind of rituals they did, because I don't know, nor do I think any of us really want to find out…" He shuddered slightly as he imagined what kind of rituals the Ancient Egyptians could have done.

"Lastly, we come to the Metals. Each of the cores that have been picked to suit Miss Potter are considered powerful in their own right. Imagine the kind of power you get when you combine 3 cores which are usually used on their own. You're going to need a strong material to be able to properly contain that power, and in this case, Wood wouldn't cut it. Metal is very, very rarely used in Wands because they are very good at containing Magic as it is quite dense and Magic has a hard time passing through it, unlike Wood which is also living material so it can channel Magic much better. Then there is the fact that with the power of one core, the Wand will have quite a hard time picking up the Magic that the Witch or Wizard is trying to channel into the Wand if most of the Magic is blocked by Metal. In this case though, it works because we are going to be combining 3 powerful cores.

"The two Metals are Silver and Black Chrome. Silver is one of the most conductive Metals on the Planet, and is also another symbol for Purity, Strength, Clarity and Focus. Black Chrome is regular Chromium but coloured Black. Chrome is known for its hardness and its high resistance to corrosion. Chrome isn't used much for any symbolism, but I'd hazard a guess and say that this shows us that you won't be easily worn down under bad situations, and you're somewhat stubborn?" Everyone apart from Olivia and Daphne chuckled. Olivia was embarrassed and Daphne was being as cold (emotionally) as her eyes.

"Then there is the matter of why Black Chrome was chosen instead of regular Chrome… do you like the colour Black?" Nick asked Olivia. She shrugged, but nodded. She did wear the colour quite a bit.

"Well, I can think of a few possibilities that link you to Black… firstly you live among the Black family… then there's the fact that you have a dark past with your Parents killed when you were a baby… Black seems to be a colour that you like… and the last thing I could think of is that deep, deep down you have a dark side, the opposite of your better side. If that's the case, you need to be careful that you never succumb to the darkness within…" Olivia was concerned with the last point that Nick made, but she wasn't given time to think much further on it.

"Ok now, enough with the talking and the chit chat! Let's get on with it shall we?"

With that, Nick held out his hands in front of him and intertwined his fingers and stretched, clicking the cartilage in his hands in preparation. When he was ready, he tapped one of the Runes inscribed in the top left corner of the workbench. This Rune seemed to activate all the other Runes and the area all around the workbench started glowing a deep Blue with Magical Power.

He tapped 2 large Runes on the far Right side of the workbench, and both sunk into the workbench to form a hemisphere indentation in the table. He slotted both Orbs of Metal into the slots.

Next he tapped a Rune at the bottom of the workbench, close to where he was standing next to it, and placed the Ancient Egyptian Runestone on it.

Finally he turned to the 3 glass jars. He took the jar with Abraxan hair and opened it first. He consulted the Blueprints for a short moment before taking out 3 long hairs that were longer than Olivia's whole arm. The second jar he took was the jar with Siren hair inside. He seemed to handle the jar almost reverently, being very careful with it as if handling it even slightly too hard would break the jar and damage the hairs inside. He precisely extracted 4 hairs with the use of tongs.

Then he turned around and went to very back of the store to rummage through a series of drawers until he found what he was looking for. He came back with a plain hollow cylinder which looked like it was made of Gold. The cylinder was the length of his forearm and was small enough in diameter to easily wrap your hands around it.

"Gold is the most unreactive Element that we know, which also means that it does not contain any impurities from reacting with its surroundings. That's why we use it as a medium when we craft, so that it does not react with any of the components we use." Only Lily really seemed to understand since she had more semblance of a Muggle education than the others who were watching. The rest of them did not know what Nick meant when he called Gold an Element… Gold couldn't be used in spells like Fire, Water, Air or Earth…

Nick placed the cylinder on the workbench. Very carefully, he took the Abraxan hairs and folded them in half so that they would fit into the cylinder. Then he grabbed his tongs and picked up the Siren hairs. With expert precision, he slowly intertwined the two hairs together, eventually forming some semblance of a crude braid with the hairs. Once all the hairs were properly intertwined, he placed the bundle into the cylinder. To add the finishing touch, he took the jar filled with Unicorn Blood and slowly poured enough into the cylinder to almost entirely fill it. Then he replaced the jar and capped the Gold cylinder.

He started to shake the Gold cylinder. Nothing seemed to happen for a minute, but then they all started to hear a metallic humming sound emanating from the cylinder. Nodding his approval, he touched a very large Rune in the middle of the table, with hundreds of smaller Runes drawn all over the inside of the larger Rune in intricate patterns that only a Runemaster would be able to understand or even hope to recreate.

The very atmosphere in the shop itself seemed to grow much more intense and time seemed to slow. Olivia swore she felt all the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end as she felt the sheer volume of Magical Energy Saturation present in the very air of the Room. Everyone else seemed to feel it too.

Nick took a deep breath, and then uncapped the cylinder and poured its contents straight out over the main Rune on the table. The contents flowed out of the cylinder like liquid silver; no traces could be seen of the solid hairs. Olivia suspected that they dissolved into the Blood. At first it seemed that the substance would splatter onto the table, but at the last moment the liquid lost all of its momentum and stopped in mid-fall before starting to float back up into the air. It came to hover at eye level in a shimmering Silver glob and the entire group stared in awe at the amazing display of Magic by a series of Runes.

Nick picked up two Metal Rods made of Gold and started prodding the glob, shaping it while it was in mid-air. He smoothed the glob out into a long thin stream, which was sharp looking on either end and grew thicker towards the middle. Once he was happy, he tapped a small Rune beside the Rune where the Runestone sat. The Rune started whirring away and slowly the Runestone was dissolved into small dust particles which Nick directed towards the floating stream of Silver using… a handheld Hairdryer? When the dust made contact with the floating Silver, the Runestone was absorbed. Nick used up the entire stone.

Now moving on to the finishing stretch, he tapped a Rune on the right beside the two Orbs of Metal. The two Metals started merging together until one Orb of Metal sat where 2 Orbs previously sat. Instead of the Orb expanding when it gained Mass, it instead stayed the same size and increased its own density instead. The Orb had also ignored the previous appearances of the Shiny Silver Orb or the Glossy Black Orb that it was comprised of and it was coloured in Matte Black instead. There were no reflections at all on the surface of the Metal apart from the dull reflection of bright light when it was shone onto the Orb.

He then tapped another Rune beside it, and the Solid Metal Orb became Liquid which flowed upwards towards the floating Silver stream. Nick used his Gold Metal Rods again and started to spiral the liquid Metal around the Silver. Instead of absorbing this time, the two liquid-like substances seemed to be happy staying separate from each other. Once he finished, he put his Gold Rods away and tapped a Rune on the bottom left corner of the workbench.

A blinding flash of light appeared out of nowhere, which dazed all of the occupants of the Room, and a metallic _thunk_ noise could be heard, like something made of Metal had just fallen onto a table.

"Damn, that is the second bright flash of light I've seen today. Any more and I might go blind!" Arlene grumbled, but after her exclamation the tense atmosphere was essentially shattered.

Once everyone regained their vision, they saw Nick with a bright smile on his face, standing in front of the shop counter/workbench holding a simple Matte Black Metal Rod in two hands. Aside from the colour, the Rod had no other noteworthy features. Olivia was confused, this wasn't a Wand…

Wordlessly, Nick held out the Rod for Olivia to take. Hesitantly, she took the Rod with both her hands. The Rod definitely had some weight to it, but it wasn't too heavy and Olivia could easily swing it around if she wanted to. The Rod was around 1.6 inches (4 cm) wide in diameter and she guessed around 25 centimetres long, or about 10 inches long give or take.

Nothing seemed to happen, and Olivia was about to voice her concern that she needed a Wand, not a Metal Rod, when she suddenly felt something magically connect with her. To Olivia, the only way for her to describe how it felt like was to compare it to someone reaching in to your very being and touching your soul to form a permanent connection between the two of you. She couldn't help but take a deep gasp for air as the process felt very odd… but not totally unpleasant.

That was when the Rod started shifting. At either of the ends of the Rod, the Metal started to look like it became liquid again as it flowed and extended the Rod. Once the Metal was done shifting, it all solidified again, to form some kind of Staff.

After extending, the Staff grew thinner in Olivia's hand until it was now just over 1 inch (3 cm) wide in diameter and was now even longer than Olivia's own height. If she stood the Staff up, it would be a whole head and a bit taller than her. The Staff seemed to be styled like a double bladed weapon from some fantasy adventure.

The middle was now a Black Metal grip that was styled to be held comfortably. The grip was around 45 cm or 18 inches long, give or take. On one end was a long ornate Blade which looked similar in shape to a Scimitar blade, except the Blade on the weapon that Olivia held was slightly wider and only curved close to the tip of the Blade. On the other end was the same blade with the same style except the blade was reversed. Both Blades were made of a sharp shiny Silver that gave off no reflection apart from the bright sparkle of Light.

The staff looked deadly. The Blades on the weapon looked like they could skewer a fully-grown adult easily, or cause some very nasty cuts.

( **AN: If you want a picture - sorry, I'm quite terrible at describing something I see in a picture - go and Google "Double Bladed Sword" and look for an image that has flames in the background. Just imagine the grip was at least double the length so you'd have no issues with swinging it around you, but the blades are the same size. I tried my best to describe it in words but... I wish we could insert images into Stories, I really do** )

"It seems that Magic has decided that a Wand is not what you need. Instead, Magic itself has decided that you need a Battle Staff. It's certainly not every day someone comes into my store and ends up walking out with a Staff, let alone a Battle Staff. Battle Staffs haven't been used since the time of Merlin or even the Founders of Hogwarts.

"Legend has it that they had truly gruesome and awe-inspiring Magical Wars back then, not like today where it's all done in subterfuge and through politics too, with only a few actual large scale Battles here and there. Back then, they didn't have to worry about things like the Statute of Secrecy... in fact, Magicals loved to strike fear into the hearts of the Non-Magicals of their time. One battle could reshape the very geography of the surrounding landscape, Mountains became Seas, Seas became new Continents, Beaches became Volcanoes... they really had no reason to hold back at all.

"But Wands weren't able to cope with the level of spells that the Witches and Wizards used during Wartime so they resorted to Staffs, but then they were quite vulnerable because they were at a disadvantage with physical combat as a Staff was a lot harder to manoeuvre with than a Wand. So then they developed Battle Staffs which were lighter and also typically resembled some physical weapon so that the Witches and Wizards who wielded them could be just as deadly in physical combat as they were in magical combat.

"They can directly block or deflect most spells, their Blades are very strong and sharp enough to cut through the Bone, and they pack a hell of a punch in Spellpower." Nick went into lecturing mode, but Olivia was too interested to notice anything else as she listened to his explanation.

Olivia had no idea what to think at the moment. She expected to get her own Wand that she could love and cherish, but instead she received a weapon that was designed for War, and Magic itself had made the match. Did that mean that she needed to fight soon? The thought scared her, but then again, that may have been why she had been trained for as long as she could remember…

That was also when Olivia thought of a problem with having a Battle Staff.

"Um… how am I supposed to transport this thing around with me? It's too big to hide, and those Blades will make me look like I'm ready to go on a killing spree…" just after Olivia phrased her question out loud, the Metal of the Staff started flowing like liquid again, and before she knew it, she was holding the Plain Matte Black Rod from before.

"That Battle Staff is magically linked to you now. It will only ever respond to you, and it can adapt to whatever you need on its own, like growing to match your new height as you grow older or if the Battle Staff isn't effective enough it might change the formation of its Blades. This also includes the need to hide the Staff… after all, a weapon is better concealed, isn't it? I have a special holster for sale that I can give to you to carry the Staff in its Rod form, but since it is magically linked to you, you can summon it to you whenever you want and it can change form whenever you will it to, without even having to see it in person. All it requires is a thought."

Olivia nodded, but turned to her Mother in question.

"Do Hogwarts even accept Staffs or Battle Staffs?" she asked.

Lily shrugged, "I don't know sweetie, but we can always talk to Dumbledore or Professor McGonagall later about it."

Olivia nodded, then turned to face Nick as she pulled out her Gringotts money pouch that was linked to her Trust Vault, before Lily could say anything.

"How much for the Staff and the Holster?"

"Hmm, since you're friends of mine there will be no charge for the labour so just covering the cost for the materials plus the Holster is… 50 Galleons."

Olivia nodded, but summoned 60 Galleons into the pouch and handed the money over.

"Sweetie, this is too much!"

"Don't worry about it, keep it. Call it a tep."

Lily chucked, "Honey, its _tip_ not tep."

"You know what I mean…" Olivia looked exasperated. She still didn't really understand some Muggle concepts such as certain phrases like when Lily says "Oh my god" or "Jesus Christ"… and other things like tips.

Olivia went to the side of the shop to practice transforming the Staff through her thoughts. It took a while to get used to, but she eventually got the hang of it. Olivia trained her own mind to activate the Staff's transformation by using mental words as trigger words. When she focused on the word _Staff_ this would cause her Staff to transform from Rod form to its proper form, and it could be reversed by focusing on the word _Rod_.

Once she was happy, Olivia examined the Staff's Holster. It was made of some kind of light but strong Metal with Dragonhide straps and was designed to be strapped to either of her thighs. Once she secured it to her right thigh, it seemed that it was charmed to be weightless and when she moved her legs, it did not restrict her movement at all, nor did it feel like it was loose and ready to fall off. Just like her Wand-holsters, the Holster fitted to her body perfectly.

The Staff was meant to be clicked in to the spring loaded mechanism of the Holster, and couldn't be physically removed again without having to trigger the mechanism. According to Nick, the Holster was enchanted so that if you held your hand close to the Holster and channelled a bit of Magic into it, releasing he mechanism, the Holster would launch the Rod straight into your hand every time. It did not matter where you held your hand as long as it was near the Holster and there were no objects in between the Holster and your hand.

Olivia tried this and was surprised to find out for herself that Nick was correct. If she held her hand at hip height and released the mechanism, the Holster launched the Rod upwards straight into her hand. When she held her hand at the same height as the Holster with her palm facing it, the Rod was launched sideways straight into her hand again. Even holding her hand in front and behind the Holster garnered the same results. The only problem she had was getting the Rod with her other hand as it was a little awkward having to reach over herself to get her left hand in range to catch the Rod, but this was quickly solved when Olivia used her connection with the Rod to summon it into her left hand; but she kind of liked using the Holster's built in method of retrieving the Rod.

It took her significantly less time to practice catching her Rod from the new Holster than when she tried to catch her Practice Wands from their Holsters because it wasn't much different and she'd trained her reflexes rather well to be able to catch objects that were launched quite quickly into her hands.

Once she was satisfied that she'd mastered the art of catching her Rod, she turned back to see Nick in the process of making something for Daphne.

He was using a small knife that Olivia had seen used on TV by Muggles to conduct surgical operations, and a pair of pliers to hold the floating core still as he cut off excess bits and pieces of what looked like the Heartstring from a Dragon. When he was done, he was left with a single straight chord of Heartstring. Next he picked up a small vial and poured 2 drops of its contents on to the Heartstring. Whatever was in the vial must have been slightly toxic at the very least as it fizzed and bubbled as it was absorbed by the Heartstring. Then he tapped a Rune next to a small Sapphire stone, and the Sapphire turned to dust and was absorbed by the Heartstring. Once he was done, Nick picked up a block of Wood that was White in colour.

He touched a Rune in the top right corner of the workbench and then placed the block of Wood inside a slot that opened up in the table. Once the wood was placed in, the slot closed and the block seemed to be lost to the Void. Not even 10 seconds had passed before another _ding_ noise was heard.

Nick touched the same Rune he last touched and this time, a round slot opened up in the workbench with a round piece of Wood sticking out of it slightly. Nick pulled out what now looked like a more typical Wooden casing for a Wand.

Lining it up carefully, Nick moved the casing so that the Heartstring (which was hovering perfectly still in mid-air) was slowly inserted into the Wooden casing. Once all of the Heartstring was in the casing, he picked up another vial of a translucent Blue liquid and poured a small amount in before placing a cap made of the same White Wood on the end of the Wand which permanently sealed, and deactivated the Runes on the workbench.

Walking around the counter to stand in front of the group again, Nick turned to Daphne and offered to her a simplistic yet very fine and elegant looking Wand made of Brilliant White Wood.

As Daphne and Nick talked, Olivia turned to Lily.

"What materials is Greengrass' Wand made out of?"

"The cores are the Heartstring from a Northern Ice Dragon and Venom from a Basilisk. There's a Sapphire stabiliser and the Wood is from a Pando Tree. He also needed to add a small amount of Tears from a Hydra in order to make sure that the Venom didn't eventually burn away the Heartstring. The Wand should be 12 and a half inches long and should be slightly flexible according to the Blueprints." She said.

Olivia gave a low whistle in appreciation. 3 Cores from infamously powerful Magical Creatures… Olivia was wondering why Daphne's Wand wasn't made out of Metal…

"This particular Heartstring and Basilisk Venom aren't very magically compatible, which was why Nick needed to add the Tears in, which caused all 3 Cores to lose some of their Magical potency as they mixed so that was why Daphne's Wand was able to use Wood. However Pando Trees are quite resilient so that may have been why it was used instead of other Woods… it may also be a testament to Daphne's own resilience? I'm not sure… it's been so long since I last saw Beth and I didn't mean to spend so long without any contact with my old best friend. We really need to meet up more often, but that means I don't know very much about her daughters… just like Beth hardly knows anything about all of you… but she did know your Mother very well…" Lily hinted. Beth caught the tail-end of what Lily said and she winked at Olivia while tapping the side of her nose – a hint that she _knew_ about her secret.

The Greengrass girls paid Nick and then Lily and Beth chatted with him for a few more minutes, before Lily saw that it was getting late, and Sirius and his boys had been wandering around Diagon Alley unchecked for quite some time now. She needed to find them to make sure nothing happened.

The Greengrass females had also brought the rest of their family, Lord Michael Cygnus Greengrass and their 7 year old only son David Christopher Greengrass. Both had done the same as the Males of the Black family and chose to wander for themselves while the Females went shopping. It seems all Males were the same when it came to shopping.

The 3 adults exchanged their new contact information (Floo address, Telephone & Mobile Numbers if they had them, Real addresses etc.) before the group said goodbye to Nick to go find their respective Males.

Just as Olivia was on her way out of the store, she heard Nick call out her name. She turned around to see him standing a few feet away from her, his previously cheerful demeanour now replaced with a more serious one. Olivia unconsciously cocked her head slightly to one side, eyes wide in curiosity, which Nick took as a sign to speak.

"I just wanted to add before you go... one thing you should know about Staffs, especially Battle Staffs, is that they are more powerful than Wands because they are imbued with more Magical energy thanks to the number of cores they tend to have. This is why they are able to form a Magical link, or a bond, with their owners. Through this bond, they act as much better mediums for casting spells as they are better linked with the Magic of the spellcaster. This also has the effect of the owner being the only one that can use the Staff for spells. Overall, Staffs seem to be superior in comparison to Wands aside from the problem of carrying them around. However this all comes at a cost...

"Because of this bond between the Staff and the owner, if the Staff were ever truly damaged beyond repair - and I mean so damaged that the cores of the Staff were dead and no longer flowed with Magic - then not only will the Staff die, but so will the one the Staff is bonded to. The bond which forms between the two is something no-one currently understands, nor do I think will anyone ever understand. The fact that there are so few Staff users nowadays doesn't help, but it is believed that this bond runs deep within the very beings of the Staff and the owner... anyway, just a friendly word of advice, take good care of that Staff." And just like that, Nick's friendly smile was back on his face.

Olivia wasn't sure what to make of Nick's advice, and the information that the death of her Staff will result in the death of herself was a major point of concern in her opinion. Yet, at the same time, Olivia felt some reassuring presence in the back of her mind which made her think that as long as she didn't mistreat the Staff, she shouldn't have anything to worry about.

"Thank you for the advice." Olivia politely returned.

The response she received was a nod and a friendly wave as Olivia turned and exited the shop.

It was only after Olivia left the store that she realised that Nick was immune to her allure. She was told by Lily that aside from her family, there would be a few around that could do the same, but Olivia never really believed it…

She didn't spend long thinking on this because she was startled back into the present by a face appearing directly in front of her, and they were standing a little closer than she was comfortable with.

"Come on Potter, Lady Black is starting to worry about where you went, and we also need to go find the Men." said Daphne. Olivia nodded in acknowledgement, but found it hard to leave with Daphne blocking her movement since the store Olivia just left was still just behind her. The rather intense look in Daphne's eyes seemed to freeze Olivia's movements and she found that for some reason all she could do was stare equally back at her.

For a few moments, neither of the two moved. Daphne just seemed to stare with an odd look at Olivia while Olivia was wondering why Daphne hadn't moved yet, but the brief spell was broken as an old hag which resembled a Muggle's traditional idea of a Witch shuffled by muttering to herself about dark things. Daphne blinked before spinning on her heel and walking back out of Knockturn Alley, with a very confused Olivia following in her wake. The event was quickly forgotten as the 2 girls joined up with the rest of the female contingent back in Diagon Alley.

Fortunately for the group, it was now nearing 5 o'clock in the Afternoon, and so the crowd of people present in the Alley had thinned out quite a bit, allowing them to walk around easily without brushing past anyone. They quickly found all 5 of the Males they were searching for, still with their faces pressed up against the Window of Quality Quidditch Supplies.

Both Mothers sighed, while Arlene started smirking mischievously and whispered something to Lily and Beth. Both of them listened for a moment before they too developed similar smirks. Innocent Violet didn't like the look on their faces and went to stand behind Olivia and held onto her hand. She looked quite scared. Both Greengrass daughters just looked confused (well, in Daphne's case, Olivia just sensed that she was confused, but her outward appearance gave no hint of that).

At last, the 3 smirking females turned to face Olivia.

"Sweetie, would you be so kind as to conjure 5 buckets worth of Ice Cold Water please? Make sure it's the same temperature as Water that you'd find in a Northern Ocean. Then could you create a strong gust of Wind to blow in their direction?" asked Beth.

Olivia liked the idea, but did not feel comfortable with the public display of Magic. Despite the spells being regular Wizarding spells, her Water and Wind Magic was a lot more powerful than the normal Magic user. Then there was also the matter of getting caught for using Magic while underage.

"It'll be ok sweetie, there's no-one nearby and you're currently in a public Wizarding area which gets so many regular Magical Visitors that the Ministry does not bother to monitor this area. Plus Beth works in the Ministry and has an idea of how things work there." Lily said.

Olivia considered it more for another few moments. She knew that Lily was usually very cautious and considered every possibility before making a decision… if she was confident that nothing bad would happen then Olivia would trust her.

Olivia then decided how she was going to do this. She _could_ just cast the spells and let them come out of the end of her Staff… but that would be pretty boring. She also knew that when using a Staff to cast a spell, you can choose the spell to come from anywhere (depending on the spell). If it was a large spell that manipulated the elements it could come from the surroundings, if it was a charm or a spell similar to a Stunner it could come out of the Staff or she could channel it to come out of her hand while the Staff stays still (but that required more effort to channel it to come out of her hand) etc.

But then when thinking of the Staff as a large deadly weapon, she was reminded of some of her Martial Arts training where she was taught a few basic techniques on how to use a pole to fight. Since her weapon was a bit like a pole (only with blades) this gave her an idea.

Giving one last look around, Olivia held her right hand at thigh level beside her Holster and triggered the release of the Rod. As soon as the Rod left the Holster, she transformed it into its Staff form as it made its way into her hand. Once she caught it she gave it a good spin for effect (luckily Violet, Daphne and the younger Greengrass Daughter had all moved back from Olivia). Once the Staff was fully transformed (it seemed to go a lot faster when she didn't pay attention to it) which happened while it was in mid-spin, she started conjuring the Ice Cold Water, she decided to skip the middle man and forgo summoning the buckets. When the spell was almost complete, she gave a dramatic spin on the spot and then swung her Staff with one hand in the direction of the 5 unsuspecting Males. Gallons of Water seemed to spray out of the end of the Staff (or the Blade) and time seemed to slow as it advanced on the Males.

* * *

Sirius and Michael both used to be good mates back in the day, even though Sirius was a Gryffindor and Michael was a Slytherin. At first their interactions at school were open hostility towards each other, but after both were assigned to work as partners for a Potion's project for an entire term in 3rd Year, they noticed that they both weren't so different, if you ignored the fact that they were from 2 different houses with a fierce rivalry that had lasted throughout the ages.

They both liked Quidditch, they both loved to prank, neither of them liked the idea of ever growing up, both of them considered themselves as 'Ladies Men' and both knew nothing of what the other was really like in private.

So they eventually opened up to each other, and they got along very well. Sirius even introduced Michael to James, Remus and Peter. At first they were suspicious of Michael, but very soon they warmed up to him and he became an honorary member of the Marauders (he couldn't be a proper member because he was in a different house and couldn't spend all his time with the proper Marauders). Michael only joined in with the Marauders' shenanigans when it was something big like pranking the entire school, and he was also joined by Frank Longbottom who was also an honorary member of the Marauders. Then James, Sirius, Frank and Michael all fell for the 4 most popular females in their school (Arlene Eliana Lagunov, Lily Evans, Alice Travers and Bethany Elizabeth Burke) who all happened to be very good friends with each other.

It was very hard, but eventually all 4 Males managed to charm their respective loves and the rest is History… Ok, now here's the true story…

All 4 Males tried to ask the girls out on dates for the next 2 years with no success, but they were persistent. One day in 6th Year, the 4 Males got down on their hands and knees and begged their crushes for just one date, right in front of the Great Hall at Breakfast. The girls took pity on them and finally said yes. At first, the 4 girls refused to go on single dates alone with one of the Males so the entire group of 8 just hung out… but the girls actually enjoyed their time with the boys and they continued hanging out. Then, when the girls were more confident that the boys weren't going to try anything funny, they started agreeing to their requests to go on single dates. Bit by bit, the girls succumbed to the boy's efforts… and _then_ the rest is really History.

Sirius was making his way over to Quality Quidditch Supplies, the unofficial place in Diagon Alley where all Males go to pass the time as the females or students went shopping for supplies. The beginnings of a crowd were forming outside the front Window to the store, which meant something new had arrived.

Sirius could only guess what was in the Window, and he and the boys quickly sped up to get to the front of the group amassing to see what it was… and Sirius' hunch was correct. There lying perfectly on a royal purple plush pillow sat the newest and most beautiful looking broomstick ever made by Nimbus. The Nimbus 2000. ( **AN: Not sure if 2000 model numbering is really appropriate in 2008… but… I really liked the Nimbus 2000 so I'm keeping it the same** ). Sirius put his eyesight to good use as he slowly examined every little detail of the broom.

He was so enraptured by the broom that he accidentally brushed against the person standing next to him as he readjusted his stance while peering through the Window.

"Sorry," was spoken at the same time by Sirius and the other Male. Sirius was about to go back to examining every detail of the broom when he realised that he recognised the other voice…

He turned to his right to get a look at the person he brushed, and it seems the person also turned his head to the left to look at him at the same time. He knew this person…

They had long light brown hair that came down to their jawline and framed a very solid, chiselled face with sharp features, and they had brown eyes so dark you'd think they were Black at first glance. With him he had a small boy with the same coloured hair but Baby Blue eyes instead of Dark Brown ones. The Child's hair was cut short and left to run wild.

"Michael?"

"Sirius?"

They both spoke at the same time. Then they started grinning stupidly at each other, and went in for a big friendly hug.

"Merlin! How are you, you mangy mutt?" Michael exclaimed.

"Not too bad, how about yourself?" Sirius asked.

"Eh, I miss the good old times. Being an adult sucks. I also feel old whenever I look at my Daughters who are growing up so fast…"

"Tell me about it. James' Daughter, Olivia, who I like to think of as one of my own Children, is going to Hogwarts this year. It seems like only yesterday that I remember her being born…" both Men were quiet in respect as they remembered their dear old friend.

After a minute, Sirius broke the ice again.

"Anyway, how is Beth?"

"Oh she's fantastic." Michael said with a goofy grin on his face. Sirius bellowed with laughter and smacked him playfully on the shoulder.

"You know what I mean!"

"She's doing pretty well. She hasn't seemed to have aged one bit since we were 20. She's currently working at the Ministry. She got the job ever since Daphne and Astoria were old enough not to need her to look after them."

"Yeah, Lily is the same. She still looks like she's 20. Now that the kids don't need her to look after them all the time, she's been striving to become a Charms and Potions Master. She's always studying, at least that hasn't changed. Then when she isn't studying, she's teaching the kids the basics of Magic among other things. What about yourself? I've seen you at Wizengamot meetings along with Frank but we never get to talk because of all the damn Politics and such."

"Oh yeah, I get you. Well aside from that stupidity, I'm doing very well working with Gringotts as a consultant for Curse Breakers. I'm a little too old to regularly go jumping into old tombs and such, but I'm on hand if there's ever a situation where something goes wrong. Turns out studying Ancient Runes and paying attention in History of Magic _wasn't_ a waste of time as I get paid pretty handsomely by the Goblins when I'm called in. The rest of my time is spent by having to manage investments. I own a few properties in the Muggle World that I'm renting out and I'm involved in all that business of buying and selling shares in Magical and Muggle businesses. How about you? What does the Dogfather do in his spare time?"

"Oh, well I also invest a little, but I let the Goblins handle that. I'm actually employed by the Department of Mysteries… but I can't tell you more than that. Let's just say that it's a job I have to attend to regularly and it pays very well." Sirius winked. "At least I still get weekends off and I can still come home every evening. But I actually had to formally make a request for time off months ago so that the request had time to be processed properly. It's actually Olivia's birthday tomorrow and I wouldn't miss it for anything. They weren't too happy about me taking a whole week off when I also took a week off last month for Violet's birthday but I… _persuaded_ them to let it pass." He chuckled cryptically.

Both Men enjoyed catching up, but then they remembered about why they were standing where they were and turned back to admire the Nimbus 2000.

Next thing they knew, they were suddenly splashed by Freezing Cold Water that penetrated through their clothes and skin right to the very bone.

* * *

Once Olivia had thoroughly drenched the poor Males, she spun her Staff again until it was vertical, and then slammed it into the ground while summoning a strong current of Wind to blow through the Alley at the moment the Staff touched down.

The spell came out more powerful than Olivia meant to (she was used to putting way more Magical Power into her spells with her Practice Wand) and it felt like a small Hurricane was blowing through the Alley. The Males were blasted off their feet as they were unprepared and the Females all held on to Olivia, who held on to her Staff stuck in the ground as she cancelled the spell.

When the Wind died down, the Females opened their eyes to see all 5 Males lying in a pile on top of each other and clearly shivering violently.

As all the Males looked up from their pile on the ground, they saw the Goddess Olivia (the Sunset was directly behind her and gave her what looked a little like a heavenly glow and a Halo) spinning around the most deadly looking weapon they had ever seen in real life, and was even bigger than Olivia herself, before it transformed into a plain harmless looking Metal Rod that she clicked into a Metal Holster strapped to her thigh. Once she was done, she turned back to the Males and smiled an angelic smile of faux innocence.

The Males of the Black family simultaneously hung their heads and groaned as they realised that Olivia had just released her wrath upon them, while the Males of the Greengrass family stared at Olivia in awe.

" _A (soon to be) 11 year old did_ _ **that**_ _?!_ " A shivering Michael screamed in his head.

Slowly, the Males all picked themselves up from the floor and the 2 Male adults cast cleaning, drying and warming Charms on the younger Males and themselves, while the Females all laughed.

"Couldn't a simple tap on the shoulder, and not Ice Cold Water and a Hurricane, have sufficed?" Sirius asked, but didn't expect the Females to give him a proper answer. Of course, Sirius loved pranking with a passion, so he wasn't that bothered that he had been subjected to his own medicine. He just filed this occasion away as motivation to return the favour to the girls… with interest.

All the Females shook their heads before walking off towards the Leaky Cauldron and expecting the Males to follow, which they did after they all shared a brainwave.

" _Women._ "

* * *

At 11 o'clock at Night, Olivia finally crawled into bed after a very long day. Before she fell asleep, she thought back to the last events of the day and contemplated a few things.

After she pranked all the Males of the two families, they all walked back to the Leaky Cauldron. The Greengrass family were planning on inviting the Blacks out to Dinner to chat and catch up, but the Blacks beat them to offering.

After much insisting and debate, which was between the Adults while all the Children just talked to each other and got to know one another, the Adults agreed to both take the 2 families out somewhere to eat and split the bill evenly.

They ended up eating at an upscale restaurant in Muggle London but was actually owned and run by Muggleborns. They hired other Muggleborns as waiters and waitresses and the Chefs were House Elves that couldn't find Families to bond to.

As a Muggleborn, you spend 7 important years of your life in a Magical School learning Magic, in order to get OWLs and NEWTs, but those qualifications only get you jobs in the Wizarding World.

Who are the employers who employ people for those jobs?

Purebloods… and guess what?

Most Purebloods really don't like Muggleborns.

So they end up getting no job in the Wizarding World and that means they'll have to turn back to the Muggle World they thought they left behind… and then they realise that because they spent 7 years in a _Magic_ School instead of a Muggle School, they don't have qualifications to get proper Muggle jobs either. This usually means they have to go to work in low pay menial jobs, or do the same while also studying in a College on the side to get at least some kind of qualification to advance a rank in terms of jobs.

Therefore, places like the restaurant that Olivia went to today are pretty good ideas as they can help out some of the Muggleborns who find themselves in a bad position all because of narrow-minded individuals with too much power and money.

The food at the restaurant was excellent (Olivia had Roast Lamb with Roasted Potatoes and various other vegetables) and the two families got to know each other quite well. Sirius, Michael, Lily and Beth all knew each other well already and so they were in their own conversation discussing old times and adult stuff… while the kids all talked to each other.

Violet seemed to get along famously with _Astoria_ (Olivia finally knew the names of the rest of the Family!) which may be down to being the same age and both were girls. Olivia personally thought that the two girls complemented each other very well. Violet was timid and shy (she's the cute and truly innocent member of the Family) and Astoria was boisterous and hyper. When they talked together, Astoria was able to bring Violet out of her shell a little and encouraged her to be a little more confident and got her to have fun. In turn, Violet managed to ground Astoria a little. Olivia was told that on her own, Astoria would be uncontrollably hyper to the level where she'd do things that would get her into serious trouble. Arlene also talked to Astoria quite a bit and both girls were quite loud and confident and had a mischievous streak a mile wide. It worried Olivia when she tried to think of what they could get up to together.

Adam and James both primarily talked with David, the only other Male Child. Adam and David both acted like little kids, and James (even though he was older than both) talked to them about things that all Males seemed to like, such as Quidditch.

Everyone seemed to be getting along very well. The two Families just seemed to mesh well together.

And then there was Daphne, who was very content to just sit and eat. If anyone tried to talk to her, she would answer them, but somehow every time she responded she was able to phrase her answer in such a way that it would leave very little room for continuing the same conversation. Examples of this were:

"Wow, this food is great! What do you think Daphne?"

"It's adequate to fulfil my needs."

"Are you excited for Hogwarts Daphne?"

"I've prepared myself."

"What do you think of your new Wand Daphne?"

"It suits me."

There were only so many times you could talk to someone and receive short blunt answers before you sort of gave up hope of talking to them.

Olivia, however, was determined to talk to Daphne. She thought that Daphne seemed lonely, even if she didn't show it or seem to acknowledge it. Olivia also had the urge to work hard to try to get Daphne to show more emotion. She knew she had emotions, she sensed them (she still didn't understand how her ability worked or why she had it) and she'd seen them slip to the forefront once today before her mask was replaced. Olivia wanted to be Daphne's friend since she seemed like she could use a few, and she wanted to know why she wore a mask, but no-one seemed to pay attention to the issue. Even Daphne's Family didn't speak about it, and Olivia didn't get the opportunity to privately ask them about it.

Plus Olivia wasn't sure if it was just her imagination, but she thought that Daphne acted slightly differently when interacting with her in particular than when she interacted with the rest of the Black Family or even her own. She seemed to make her answers a little longer than a handful of words, and her voice wasn't completely monotone.

"So Daphne, what do you usually do in your spare time?" asked Olivia.

Daphne considered this question for a few moments before responding.

"I usually study subjects that interest me such as Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, Charms and History of Magic. When I'm not reading books on the subject… I listen to Muggle Music – yes _Muggle_ , my Mother introduced me and I find it quite relaxing – or watch Television. And yourself?"

"Oh, I sort-of study… but I study using more… _practical_ methods than just reading. I study subjects such as DADA, Combat Magic, Occlumency, Charms and Transfigurations etc. through meeting Tutors during the Week and doing Physical exercises. I do read a _few_ books, but not that many. Reading isn't really my learning style and I much prefer learning things through doing something practical. Then I also exercise and such. When I'm not doing that, I go and surf the Internet on my Laptop – a Muggle device that connects you to a Muggle information network – or watch TV or play Video Games. I also go flying when I can, but that's not as often as I'd like because we live in a Muggle Neighbourhood, and I don't have my own broom."

Conversation between Olivia and Daphne followed much of the same pattern. Olivia could talk for a while about her own life while Daphne seemed to offer slightly more information when talking with Olivia, but not a drastic increase compared to the amount she said to others. Olivia also found out many things about Daphne. Things like her favourite Subjects (which she mentioned in the previous conversation), she was very well trained in Occlumency (so she was mostly unaffected by Olivia's allure, which made Olivia sigh in relief. In fact most of the Greengrass family was too), her favourite colour was Blue, she has an affinity for Ice Magic, her Birthday was 20th June, she seemed to love listening to Music artists like Katy Perry, Busted, Backstreet Boys (a wide variety).

She would have found out more about Daphne, but their time was cut short when the adults finished their conversation after realising that it was getting very late. The two Families said goodbye for now, but Olivia personally invited them to whatever Birthday celebration the Black family had planned for her (it was all being kept secret from her, and they were doing a surprisingly good job at it), with Lily and Sirius heartily agreeing. The Greengrass family eventually caved in and agreed.

After another round of goodbyes, the two families finally went their own ways Home.

But just before they turned the corner, Olivia looked back to see the Greengrass family walking the other way, but she managed to catch something with her eyes for the minute-est fraction of a second.

When she turned back, Olivia infinitely swore that she saw Daphne standing where she stood before the two Families split, looking at her with the same stare that she felt when she was in Madam Malkins and to a lesser extent when she was stood in front of Nick's store. The emotional mask was now finally gone, and Olivia got another glimpse at the real person that lay beneath it. Her rather attractive face was no longer completely blank and unemotional. Instead she had an expression on her face that screamed genuine curiosity – she even had her head cocked slightly to the side which Olivia thought made her look quite cute.

She was gently nibbling on her lower lip in what looked a little bit like anxiety, and then her eyes were what told Olivia the rest. Her glowing Ice Blue eyes conveyed those same feelings that Olivia felt before of admiration, curiosity, determination (but Olivia did not know what it was that she was determined to do)... and that same possessive desire.

Olivia wanted to stare longer at this Daphne which looked completely different from the Daphne she interacted with for most of the day, but as she was looking back, her legs were working on autopilot and took her round the corner and blocked her view.

By the time she backpedalled and looked back round the corner, she saw Daphne with her emotional mask replaced. Daphne gave her a quick nod, before turning around and following after her own Family. She only turned back round to look at Olivia again just before she moved out of sight.

Now Olivia was even more determined than ever to get to properly know Daphne. She was an enigma to Olivia. Even though her character seemed rather plain on outward appearances, it seems that underneath she was a whole different person… and Olivia was starting to really want to be the one to make Daphne take her mask off and reveal the person she really was.

Olivia _wanted_ to know:

The girl who did not talk much.

The girl who was perfectly happy to remain in the background.

The girl who was both attractive in appearance but also plain in expression.

The girl who was going to be her Yearmate at Hogwarts.

The girl who _liked_ to study.

The girl who was (mostly) immune to her abilities.

The girl who liked the colour Blue.

The girl who was a Pureblood but also familiar with the Muggle World.

The girl who stared at her with so much hidden emotion behind those Ice Blue eyes.

The girl who wore a mask to conceal her feelings…

But above all…

The girl who turned back round to look at her, with a cute smile, and winked right at her.

* * *

 **AN:**

 _Damn… this chapter came to be extremely long...  
_

 _I hope you liked this chapter! The reason why I wrote so much in one chapter is because I set myself a goal (when I started writing this the day after I posted the first chapter) to write a day of Olivia's training AND write Olivia's trip to Diagon Alley all in this chapter… so I did it :3_

 _Next chapter should be Olivia's birthday... that's going to be fun... it's been a long time since I was 11, writing the party is going to be difficult with no ideas..._

 _Thanks for reading, hope to write to you soon!_


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